Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-07-17
Male Sea Horse Gives
Birth to Living Young
He Doesn't Neigh. but ToIks
With q Loud Clicking Voice =.

~ SSN
With q Loud Clicking Voice .
By Thomas R. Henry
The weirdest of all fish talks"
Talking fish" have become a matter
of considerable interest to the Navy
because of the confusion they cause
in the Interpretation of underwater
sounds.
A study of the talking of the sea
horse, carried out under auspices Of the
ONCE of Naval Research, has just been
reported by Marie Poland Fish Of the
University of Rhode Island, in the OFF,
cial journal of the American Ichthyo-
logical Society.
She kept specimens Of the Arctic
variety Of sea horse under observation
in q tank of salt water for i've months.
The strange creatures give every indi-
cation of talking to each other, she
found. They produce in some fashion
loud clicks similar to the swapping of
a finger. These sounds also have been
compared to the clicks of telegraph
instrument. They were especially
notable when the animal was first
placed in the tank. It would cruise back
and forth across the container, stand
ing upright and with its prehensile tail
curled over its back, emitting the char
acteriStic sounds at intervals of from
half to three quarters Of an hour.
When two sea horses were kept in
separate jars adjacent to each other,
it appeared as if they were trying to
converse. First one would emit a
series of clicks. Then the other would
answer. The sounds probably were
produced by swapping the jaws to-
gether. In nature they probably
are mating calls. the investigator be-
lieves.
Queer Anomaly.
This creature Is about the queerest
bundle of contradictions in the animal
kingdom.
A fish with the head of Lilliputian
horse, the tail of monkey. the shell
of a beetle and the pouch of a kanga-
o.
A creature that reverses the ordinary
course of nature in that child bearing"
is exclusively function of the male.
Perhaps in no other animal have been
packed so many anomalies.
These weird creatures are almost
worldwide in their distribution through
ocean waters where there are growthS
of sea vegetation. They have provided
the models for some Of the monsters
Of human nightmares. Actually they
are small, feeble. almost defenseless
creatures.
The head unquestionably is similar
to that Of miniature horse in general
outline. The neck, however. is not a
neck at all. Fishes have no necks and
HippocampuS is no exception. What
looks like a neck is the upper part of
its abdomen, considerably contracted,
The body is covered with a jointed.
chitinous shell, like many of the in
sects. This popularity left early natu-
ralists in doubt as to whether it actu-
ally was a fish or some sort of mon
StrouS water bug. It is, of course, a
true fish with no insect affiliations.
The hard shell makes it a feeble, in
efficient swimmer. 1t is able, in fact,
to swim at all only because of a large
ar bladder so delicately adjusted to
the specific gravity of the animal that
II gas bubble the size of a pinhead
is let out by puncture the sea horse
oAAAAAo w VAC bOOVOIu. 1IlcTG IL can OnlY
crawl about clumsily until the wound
is healed.
Poor Swimmer.
Because it is so poor q swimmer the
Hlppocampus must have other means
OF adjustment to its saltwater en-
vlronment. This is afforded by a pre-
hensile tail which it can wrap around
the stems Of water plants. This kind
OF a tail is found among a few man.
mails. notably the smaller monkeys. So
lar as known, no other fish has any,
thing of the sort. The animal is most
frequently observed in a state of rest.
its tail wrapped around a plant and
its body standing nearly erect in the
water.
Its food consists of tiny crustaceans
and other sea organisms of like size.
Because of it's poor powers of locomo-
ton, it must wait for those which
come within reach of its jaws, which
work with lightninglike speed or for
those which will wait accommodatingly
for it to come and get them.
HlppocampuS can move its eyes indie
pendently OF each other, thus looking
backward and forward at the same
VAAC' ~ WOulu Ue TaCIler QlIuculC 1Or
a predaceous organism to take 1t by
surprise, but on the other hand it
would have little ability to fight back
or flee if attacked. Some species, at
least, have considerable ability to
change color to blend with the environ
ment. Bright red, pink or yellow speci-
mems when caught fade rapidly to
normal notified gray.
Male Is Mother.
Probably the greatest anomaly of the
Hippocampus family is its way of re-
producing the species. The male
actually gives birth" to living young.
The process, so far as known, is UNI
duplicated in nature. Unfertilized eggs
are laid by the female She places
them, few at time, into a pouch
like organ on the underside of the
males body. In some fashion still un-
known to biologists they are fertilized
in the transfer. Within this pouch
the eggs are incubated and there the
young remain for several days after
they are Matched. Then. fully equipped
to take care Of themselves, they are
expelled into the water. So far as
has been observed, there is no further
parental interest in them. This male
pouch might be considered as filling
hA