426 
TUFT-GILLED GROUP. 
which the typical one is best known by the short-snouted sea-horse (Hippocampus 
antiquorum), ranging from the Atlantic and Mediterranean to Australia, and occa¬ 
sionally found in the British seas. In this genus the body is more or less com¬ 
pressed and deep, with its investing bony shields raised into tubercles or spines 
of variable length; while the back of the head is compressed into a crest, terminat¬ 
ing in a well-marked knob. Small pectoral fins are present, and the males have 
a pouch beneath the tail, with its aperture near the vent, in which to carry the 
eggs. The curious resemblance presented by the heads of these fishes to that of 
a horse has obviously given rise to their popular name. They are represented 
FUCUS-LIKE SEA-HORSE (§ liat. size). 
by about a score of species. A remarkable instance of resemblance to their natural 
surroundings is afforded by the three representatives of an Australian genus of 
sea-horses, one of which (Pliyllopteryx eques ) is shown in the accompanying 
illustration. In these fishes the body may be either compressed or as broad as deep ; 
some or all of its smooth bony plates being furnished with long spine-like processes 
projecting from its edges, and many of these terminating in irregular leaf-like 
appendages. There are a pair of spines on the muzzle, and others above the eye; 
pectoral fins are present; and the tail is about equal in length to the body. In 
the absence of a pouch, the eggs are embedded in soft membranous skin on the 
under surface of the tail. These sea-horses closely resemble the colour of the sea¬ 
weeds to which they attach themselves, while the filamentous appendages of their 
