564 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
follows :—“ When they swim,” he says, “they preserve a vertical 
position, but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets 
with in the water, clasping the stem of the sea-weeds. Once fixed, 
the animal seems to watch attentively all the surrounding objects, 
and darts on any prey presenting itself with great dexterity. When 
one of them approaches the other, they interlace their two tails, and 
it is only after a struggle that they can separate again, attaching 
Fig. 371.—The Sea-horse (Hippocampus brevirostris). 
themselves by the lower part of the chin to some weed in order to 
release themselves. They have recourse to the same manceuvre 
when they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their 
tail round some new object. ‘Their two eyes seem to move indepen- 
dently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright 
and edged with blue.” 
The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to 
sustain the body in the water; they are, in fact, winged fishes, and 
probably originated the famous winged courser of mythology, after 
which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four inches in 
i 
