TKE HIPPOCAMPUS. 



i5« 



tribe. It is only nine inches in length, and often lefs, 

 wliile its thicknefs is not above an inch : The fnout is ob- 

 long, without any fiiTure at the mouth ; at the lower end 

 of which appear the foramina, with an operculum to 

 cover them *. The body is furniflied with acculeated 

 knobs, and is of a pentagonal fliape, till it reaches the 

 anus, from v/hich, to the tail, it is quadrangular. The 

 eyes are round and prominent ; behind them, in place of 

 the gills, which are here wanting, there are two fmall 

 fins, refembling the external ears of lerreftrial animals. 

 Under the belly there are two orifices ; one for voiding 

 the excrement, and the other for the emiffion of the 

 young in their egg fiate. 



The colour of this animal is a dark green, the belly 

 variegated with lioht blue foots. In the middle of the 



o o *■ 



back rifes one dorfal fin, with fixteen rays. Some fpecies 

 have hair along the back, refembling the mane of a 

 horfe. They are caught in different parts ; that which 

 IVilloughby defcribes, he law at Baicc, not far from Na- 

 ples. It had no mane ; he concludes, that that ornament is 

 cither cliarafleriilic of one of the fexes, or of a different 

 fpecies. In his plates, he has given the figure of three 

 different kinds f. 



^ WiUough. page 1^7. f Fide Winough. Ichthyol. p. IJ?, 



