ICHTHYOLOGY. 



Genus— SYNGNATHUS ; or, HIPPOCAMPUS. 

 Species— ERECTUSi 



Character — Animal having- a head formed like a Horse, 

 body jointed like armour, the fins placed on a 

 pedicle, irregular in their number and position, 

 no caudal or terminatin^-fin to the tail. 



IN a former number of the Arcana (for May) we 

 imparted to our readers a new species of this curious genus 

 of sea animals, and which was of a larger size, and much 

 longer form than the present Hippocampus, although not 

 quite so round or broad in the body. The form of the fins 

 also were found to be materially different, and much more 

 numerous. The rarity however of the former animal is 

 greater than in the present instance, yet the whimsical 

 fancy, if we may so call it, is equally displayed in the 

 pattern of each, and it is not, perhaps, impossible that 

 painters and sculptors may first have borrowed the idea of 

 a mermaid, from the specimen now before us, and except- 

 ing the head and the want of arms and hands, it strongly 

 reminds us of that object. 



The Hippocampus Erectus is a native of the American 

 Seas, and of the coasts adjacent to Mexico and the West 

 Indies; its size varies from seven inches to nine, in various 

 specimens, and which, perhaps, is distinctive of the differ- 

 ent sexes, the male being the smallest. The head has very 

 much the resemblance to that of a Horse, in the way repre- 

 sented by the ancient sculptors of Greece and Rome, the 

 same similitude is kept up wonderfully in the proportion 

 and form of the neck; the organs for hearing being placed 



a a 



