. Chapters on the natural history of the United States. Zoology. 84 CHAPTERS OX THE NATURAL HISTORY Hippocampus ingens, our Californian species, is said to reach a length of nearly a foot, and the form of the body is rather slen- der. It is of a darker brown than heptagonus, being mottled with a still darker shade, and spotted over with white. Owing to the imperishable nature of the external body armor of a sea horse, many specimens of these fishes float ashore, and in the curiosity shops there is no trouble in securing dried speci- mens. Here we may incidentally remark that, although the open
. Chapters on the natural history of the United States. Zoology. 84 CHAPTERS OX THE NATURAL HISTORY Hippocampus ingens, our Californian species, is said to reach a length of nearly a foot, and the form of the body is rather slen- der. It is of a darker brown than heptagonus, being mottled with a still darker shade, and spotted over with white. Owing to the imperishable nature of the external body armor of a sea horse, many specimens of these fishes float ashore, and in the curiosity shops there is no trouble in securing dried speci- mens. Here we may incidentally remark that, although the open seas (if the warm regions of the globe are the places where sea-horses are found in the greatest abundance, they are frequently carried by ocean currents to great distances. In studying a living specimen of the common sea-horse in an aquarium we note that it moves about in nearly a vertical atti-. Fig. 20. Phyllopteryx eques. By the Author after Giinther, and reduced. tude, and that with no great powers of locomotion. Its fins are kept in a state of rapid vibratory action, and it is due to this lack of inherent propulsive power that the fish is unable to withstand the various forces of its element which are brought to bear upon it, such as the ocean currents, and the action of the wind and the waves. By means of its prehensile tail it instinctively clings to sprays of seaweed, bits of broken shells, or anything of a similar nature which may happen to occur in its way. Their peculiar mode of reproduction especially attracts atten- tion to these fishes, "a trait so strange," as Lockwood has said, " as to suggest the seemingly abnormal habits of the marsupials —the opossum and the kangaroo—although the eccentricity of the fish is far greater than that of the land marsupial; for, in the. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may
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