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THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



engulf nothing larger than the minute 

 crustaceans which run over the weeds 

 of the sea just as do ants upon terres- 

 trial plants. They are very helpless 

 creatures, with fins so small that their 

 fastest movement is not much better 

 than a snail's pace. They therefore 

 rely upon their imitative ornamentation, 

 their hard armature, and their powers 

 of clinging firmly to stems of weeds by 

 their prehensile tails, for protection 

 from enemies. 



A remarkable feature of the group, is 

 that the males take charge of the eggs 

 as soon as they are deposited by the 

 females, and carry them around in 

 special brood-pouches until the young 

 are hatched. In some species the pouch 

 is complete with overlapping sides to 

 protect the developing young, but in 

 others, as in the Sea-dragons, there is 

 merely a pulpy area on the under sur- 

 face of the tail or the abdomen to which 

 the eggs become fastened by some sticky 

 substance. 



Several attempts to describe the 

 quaint appearance of the Sea-dragons 

 have been published, but none is more 

 successful than that of the Rev. Tenison 

 Woods in Fishes and Fisheries of New 

 South Wales. He writes "It is the 

 ghost of a sea-horse, with its winding- 

 sheet in ribbons around it ; and even as 

 a ghost it seems in the very last stage 

 of emaciation, literally all skin and 

 grief. The process of development by 

 which this fish attained to such a state 

 must be the most miserable chapter in 



the history of 'natural selection.' It 

 this be the ' survival of the fittest ' it is 

 easy to understand what has become of 

 the rest Never did the famish- 

 ing spectres of the ancient mariner's ex- 

 perience present such painful spectacles. 

 If these creatures be horses, they must 

 be the lineal descendants of those which 

 were trained to live on nothing, but un- 

 fortunately perished ere the experiment 



had quite concluded If this be 



development, it stopped only just in 

 time ; one step more and it would have 

 been a bunch of kelp." 



The Sea- dragon of Sydney beaches is less 

 weedy, but decorated with rich colours. 



[Photo.— G. C. Clinton. 



Essay Competition. 



Mr. George A. Taylor has generously 

 presented five guineas to be awarded as 

 a prize for the best essay by a pupil of 

 a New South Wales school, the subject 

 being " A Visit to the Austrahan 

 Museum." The competitors, who must 

 be between the ages of twelve and 

 sixteen on 1st March, 1924, may select 

 any department or may write a general 



account of the whole institution, the 

 essay to contain 1500 to 2000 words. 

 Teachers are asked to select the three 

 best essays by pupils of their school 

 and forward them to the Director of 

 the Australian Museum on or before 

 March 1st, 1924. The successful essay 

 will be published in The Australian 

 Museum Magazine. 



