. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE HORSE-LIKE PHYLLOPTERYX. 291 dorsal fin, set far back, and capable of being moved in a marvellous fashion, tliat reminds the observer of a screw-propeller, and evidently answers a similar purpose. The tail of the Sea- Horse, stiff as it appears to be in dried specimens, is, during the life of the creature, almost as flexible as an elephant's proboscis, and is employed as a prehensile organ, whereby its o^vner may be attached to any fixed object. The specimens represented in the engra
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE HORSE-LIKE PHYLLOPTERYX. 291 dorsal fin, set far back, and capable of being moved in a marvellous fashion, tliat reminds the observer of a screw-propeller, and evidently answers a similar purpose. The tail of the Sea- Horse, stiff as it appears to be in dried specimens, is, during the life of the creature, almost as flexible as an elephant's proboscis, and is employed as a prehensile organ, whereby its o^vner may be attached to any fixed object. The specimens represented in the engraving are shown in the attitude which the creatures are fond of assuming. The head of the Sea-Horse is wonderfully like tliat of the quadruped from which it takes its name, and the resemblance is inci'eased by two apparent ears tliat project pertly from the sides of the neck. These organs, are, however, fins, and when the fish is in an active mood, are moved with considerable rapidity. It is rather a remarkable fact, that the Sea-Horse, like the chameleon, possesses the power of moving either eye at will, quite independently of the other, and therefore must be gifted with some curious modification in the sense of sight, which enables it to direct its gaze to different objects without confusing its vision. The color of this interesting little fish is light ashen-brown, relieved with sliglit dashes of blue on different parts of the body, and in certain lights gleaming witli beautifid iridiscent. GKIiAr PIPE OK SyiKjnalhus acus. SEA-IUIK^ antiquorunl. (Ouf-liall' ualural hues that play over its body with a changeful lustre. About twenty species of Sea-Horses are Ivnown. In the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, especially in the New Holland waters, there is found sometimes, as a companion of the Sea-Horse, sometimes alone, the Hoese-like Phyllopteetx, a fish which, for its extraordinarily odd aspect, we consider worthy of illustration. This fish, iu
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
