SYNGNATHID^E. 265 



B. Tail prehensile (Hippocampina.) 



Genus IV — Hippocampus, Leach. 



Trunk compressed and somewhat elevated, having from 10 to 12 rings. The 

 shields furnished with tubercles or spines. Occiput compressed and forming a 

 coronet at its posterior superior angle, which is usually surmounted by spines 

 or knobs. Dorsal and pectoral fins present : the tail prehensile, finless, and longer 

 than the trunk. Males furnished with an egg-sac situated below the tail and 

 opening near the vent. 



Geographical distribution. — Throughout temperate and tropical seas. Owing 

 to their attaching themselves, by means of their prehensile tails, to floating 

 substances as pieces of seaweed or sticks which either are or become loosened 

 from their attachments, they may be carried away long distances by currents, 

 thus widening their limits of distribution. 



The Rev. M. Lockwood (Amer. Naturalist) gives an account of how the young 

 appear. At first they were very minute, and from the time of their extrusion the 

 parent kept sending his progeny adrift : at the bottom of the vessel was a 

 broken shell put there for the attachment of the animal's tail when fatigued by 

 swimming, as this fish is very easily tired : this, monkey-like, is its favourite 

 mode of taking rest. The shell afforded real help in the labour of extruding the 

 young which is in no sense a parturient process, but on the contrary is eminently 

 mechanical. The parent pressed them out by means of the shell, stopping now and 

 again — five or six being extruded at a time. They employ their tails for holding 

 on by the first day they are born (Zool. 1868, p. 1344). 



Newman, Zool. 1873, p. 3494, remarks on having examined a living and 

 healthy Hippocampus ramulosus in an aquarium with " an abundant growth of a 

 small and delicate zoophyte on its head, neck, and the anterior part of its body." 

 He believed the zoophyte to be Serialia lendigera.* 



1. Hippocampus antiquorum, Plate CXLIV, fig. 7. 



Hippocampus, Rondel. De Pise, ii, p. 114. Hippocampus Bondeletii, Willugh. 

 Pise. lib. iv, c. ix, p. 157, t. 125, f . 3 ; Ray, Synop. Pise. p. 46 ; Gronov. Zooph. 

 no. 170. Syngnathus, sp. Artedi, Synon. p. 1, no. 1, Spec. p. 3. 



Syngnathus hippocampus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 417 ; Briinn, Pise. Mass. p. 10; 

 Bonn. Ency. Ich. p. 31 ; Lacep. ii, p. 42, pi. ii, f . 2 ; Bloch, Ausl. Fische, iv, p. 6, 

 t. cix, f . 3 ; Bl. Schn. p. 515. 



Hippocampus antiquorum, Leach, Zool. Misc. i, 1814, p. 104; Gunther, Catal. 

 viii, p. 199. 



Hippocampus brevirostris, Cuv. Reg. Anim. ; Yarrell, Brit. Fish. (ed. 1) ii, 

 p. 342, c. fig. (ed. 2) ii, p. 452 (ed. 3) ii, p. 394; Ch. Bonaparte, Cat. Met. 

 Pesci Europ. p. 89 ; Temm. and Schleg. Fauna Japon. Poiss. p. 274 ; Swainson, 

 ii, p. 332 ; Kaup, Lophobranchiate Fish. Brit. Mus. p. 7 ; Jenyns, Manual, p. 489 ; 

 Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, iv, p. 242 ; Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss. ii, p. 504 ; 

 White, Catal. p. 45 ; Giglioli, Catal. Pesc. Ital. p. 50 ; Moreau, Poiss. de la 

 France, ii, p. 38. 



Hippocampus, Couch, Fish. British Isles, iv, p. 364, pi. ccxli, f. 4 (this figure 

 is of H. guttulatus). 



D. 18-20, P. 15-17, A. 5. Osseous rings 11-12/36-37. 



The length of the snout equals the distance from the middle or hind edge of 

 the eye to the gill-opening. Simple fleshy filaments, of various lengths (some- 



* For the method by which the females introduce tho eggs into the ovigerous pouch of the male, 

 gee Fran/.azo. Atti !>oc. l'ad. 1874, p. 161. 



