THE NEW YORK-AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
19 
^ mam ^ 
FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT FISH. 
A DEVOTED PAPA. 
That virtue does not depend upon size is 
plainly illustrated by a funny little fellow 
that lives in the sea known as the “ Hippo-cam¬ 
pus. ” He is more commonly called the Sea¬ 
horse, and you little folks who read this need 
not trouble yourself about the long scientific 
name until you become familiar with his form 
and habits. Large sounding names without 
practical knowledge amount to nothing, but 
bless me how much of it there is now-a-days. 
If you have ever seen any of the painful dried 
up remains of sea-horses in the museums, for¬ 
get all about them and go to the Aquarium and 
get acquainted with the little creatures there, see 
how they “stand up when they sit down,” 
watch them take a hearty meal of Serpula, and 
laugh as loudly as you can when they clutch 
each other’s tails and hold on for dear life. And 
if one should come to the front of the tank and 
look you full in the face, I beg of you to exam¬ 
ine his queer little eyes looking in opposite di¬ 
rections. He will appear to gaze at you intently 
with one eye and have the other fixed on some¬ 
Nature from the first seemed to have been 
aware of Mrs. Sea-horse’s lack of maternal feel¬ 
ing, and in the emergency, provided her hus¬ 
band with a pouch. Into this she coolly depos¬ 
ited her eggs, and her sex have shirked the 
duties of a mother ever since. 
The papa not only protects the eggs but 
hatches them out in his pouch, and allows the 
mites of Sea-horses to feed upon the fat lining 
which it contains. 
Devoted as he is, however, the time comes 
when he thinks his children are able to provide 
for themselves, and without the least ceremony 
he fastens his tail to the lower part of a rock, or 
shell, and by pressing his pouch against the side 
forces the little ones out to make their debut. 
Their bewildered appearance in the water is 
most ridiculous, but after a time they conclude 
to make the best of circumstances and clasp each 
other confidently by the tail and swim about in 
a mass. The parent does not desert them at 
once, but keeps near them, and if one gets away 
from the rest he swims after it, takes it in his 
mouth and returns it to the brothers and sisteis. 
Ida B. Roberts. 
SEA HORSES AT THE AQUARIUM. 
FOR OUR YOUNG FOLKS. 
TOLD BY UNCLE OCTOPUS. 
Well, my young friends, what do you think 
of your Uncled Octopus, now that you have his 
L'T*' T.-G v.A -yij# •; ’: vr>*£X»iSv ' 
picture? He is not such a bad looking fellow, 
after all; and, if he looks a little awkward, re¬ 
member he is out of water, and “a fish out of 
water ” is always a queer looking thing. Be¬ 
sides, those spectacles are only put on when he 
is out in the sun, and just before he goes into 
the water he takes them off, rubs them on his 
sleeve, and sticks them in his inkstand along 
with his quill pen. I wonder if he got the quill 
for this pen from some stray goose? If so, then 
ive must not come too near, for fear he might 
need another. 
But your Uncle had almost forgotten what he 
wanted to say. He proposes to offer a prize, 
and this is it. He wants a composition about 
Whales, to publish in the Aquarium Journal. 
It must not be longer than four hundred words 
nor shorter than two hundred. It must be writ¬ 
ten by one of his little nephews or nieces—you 
are all his nephews and nieces, you know—who 
is not over ten years old, and it must be thought 
of and written “all yourself” 
Now, just try to write one, and send it di¬ 
rected to the editor of the Aquarium Journal, 
corner of 35th street and Broadway. 
The prizes will be as follows : For the best 
composition about Whales, the writer shall have 
a beautiful little fish globe with gold and other 
fish and some little pebbles in it, and perhaps a 
plant or two. The next best story of the Whale 
shall be rewarded by a book with pictures, telling 
of “Life Under the Ocean Wave.” Now try, all 
of you, what you can do, and we will print the 
best story in this Journal ; and if there should 
be two best, then there must be two fish globes, 
which will be all the better for you, but all the 
worse for your Uncle Octopus. 
thing in the water without the least confusion of 
vision. The Sea-horse is only three or four 
inches long, with head shaped much like that 
of the common horse, and the two fins which 
project from the sides of the neck likewise in¬ 
crease the resemblance. 
The general color is ashen gray, with almost 
indiscernible spots of blue, and in certain lights 
various hues play over the body. Its peculiar 
corrugated appearance, together with the silvery, 
metallic spangles with which it is studded, re¬ 
mind one of the tiniest of knight-errants clad in 
a suit of mail. The dorsal fin fringed and bor¬ 
dered with yellow, is delicate and beautiful, and 
the prehensile tail with which the owner attaches 
itself to a fixed object, is used most comically 
there, I can tell you. The Sea-horse is not a 
great swimmer, but is seen oftener pert and 
erect with tail attached to sea-weed than in any 
other position. 
Unnatural as it may seem, Mrs. Sea-horse 
does not have the least interest in or care of her 
young. The father takes the whole care of the 
family, and feeds them, how do-you suppose ? 
Now, my young friends, 
remember that all these stor¬ 
ies about fish are true, and 
when you read them you 
must not forget what they 
tell. biff, shou ld . rather t ry 
to find out more about these 
wonderful creatures that live 
in the sea. The best work 
that any of us do in the 
world is that which is under¬ 
taken willingly, and so it 
may be that reading these 
strange stories will make 
you glad to study or listen 
to what your teachers have 
to tell. It is not so hard 
work to be wise, after all; 
little by little we find our 
minds growing, just as our bodies grow when 
we have good food, and these truths about nature 
are the best of food for even your young minds ; 
and there is no danger of our knowing too 
much. 
That story about the Sea-horse is a good one ; 
at least your Uncle Octopus thinks so, and what 
is better it is all true. Now if you want to make 
it better still then don’t fail to come to the Aqua¬ 
rium and see the beautiful live Sea-horses. You 
can find them in the tank marked 1, and when 
you see them you will know them by their like¬ 
ness to the ones in the picture. In the same 
tank with the Sea-horses you will also see that 
queer little balloon fish that we talked about in 
the last number, and which Mr. Holder has 
written about in the first page of this journal. 
Please remember that though this is the page 
written for you alone, yet our young friends will 
be made wiser if th‘,y read all they can ; and there 
are so many wonderful things in the world that 
we must begin soon to learn about them if we 
are ever going to know. 
