186 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
fifteen inches in length. The aspect of this species when swimming in a semi-vertical 
position, as shown in the illustration, is remarkably suggestive of a hopping kangaroo, 
the two ventral appendages corresponding with the marsupial’s fore-paws. 
The South Australian Sea-dragon, Phyllopteryx eques, which occupies the central 
and most extensive area of our coloured plate, attains to a greater length than the 
Tasmanian type by several inches. Its most remarkable peculiarity, however, as 
indicated in the figure given, is the more angular contour of the body and the 
wonderfully luxuriant development upon it of outstanding spines and membranous 
leaf-like appendages. These structures bear a striking resemblance to the fronds of 
the seaweeds among which it commonly takes up its abode, and may be regarded as 
a special adaptation to ensure the animal’s effectual concealment amid its thoroughly 
harmonious environment. In this manner bunches of a finer species of seaweed 
appear to spring from the head, while the broader leaf-like fronds of a larger variety 
grow seemingly from all of the more prominent angles of the creature’s body. In 
addition to these there is a series of flattened plumeless spines along both the 
dorsal and ventral surfaces, which present a strong general resemblance to newly 
sprouting algal growths. Writing of this species of Sea-dragon, as illustrated in Dr. 
Gunther’s “ Introduction to the Study of Fishes,” page 682, the Rev. Tennison Woods 
remarks, “It is the ghost of a sea-horse with its winding sheet in ribbons around it, 
and, as a ghost, it seems in the very last stage of emaciation, literally all skin and 
grief.” In the figure alluded to, drawn from a specimen abnormally shrivelled up 
by conservation in strong alcohol, the spectre-like comparisons are by no means 
inappropriate. In its native element, however, resplendent in its natural colouring, in 
which various shades of light crimson or lilac predominate, bravely bedecked with 
flowing frills and furbelows, and with resplendent jewel-like eyes of sapphire blue, 
this fish constitutes one of nature’s most exquisitely wonderful productions, capable 
of and distinctly manifesting the fullest capacity for life’s enjoyment. 
The fish at the bottom of Chromo-Plate VI. is a _ type, Solengognathus 
spinosissimus, that is intermediate between the slender Pipe-fishes—represented by a 
species of Syngnathus towards the left-hand top corner—and the Sea-horses, 
Hippocampi. Like the latter, it has a prehensile tail, with at the same time a 
gorgeous scarlet and yellow livery resembling that of the Sea-dragons. The form 
figured is occasionally taken with Phyllopteryx foliatus in Tasmanian waters, while 
a second species, S. Hardwickii, occurs as far north as Houtman’s Abrolhos on the 
west, and Moreton Bay on the eastern Australian sea-board. 
