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This webpage reproduces a section of Star Names Their Lore and Meaning by Richard Hinckley Allen as reprinted in the Dover edition, 1963 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

 p250  Hydrus,

first published by Bayer, must not be confounded with the ancient Hydra. It lies between Horologium and Tucana; the head adjoining the polar Octans, the tail almost reaching the magnificent Achernar of Eridanus.

The French know the figure as l'Hydre Mâle; and the Germans as der Kleine Wasserschlange.

Out of this, with Tucana and the Lesser Cloud, Julius Schiller made his biblical constellation Raphael.

The Chinese formed from the stars of Hydrus, with others surrounding it, four of their later asterisms: Shay Show, the Serpent's Head, marked by ε and ζ; Shay Fuh, the Serpent's Belly, towards Tucana; Shay We, the Serpent's Tail, entirely within the boundaries of Hydrus; and Foo Pih, of unknown signification, marked by γ, a red 3.2‑magnitude, specially mentioned by Corali in his account of the Magellanic Clouds.

In it Gould catalogues 64 stars from 2.7 to 7th magnitudes.

The 2.7‑magnitude lucida β, in the tail, is of remarkably clear yellow hue, and the nearest conspicuous star to the south pole, although 12° distant.

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