CEPHALOPODA. 17 



great velocity, by sudden and irregular jerks. They are 

 carnivorous, ferocious, and greedy, and will even tear pieces 

 from fishes that have swallowed the baited hook, and many 

 will attack and devour small individuals of their own spe- 

 cies. " Their warfare," says Dr. Johnston. " though cruel, 

 is open, and they are amply furnished with the necessary 

 weapons. The long flexible arms that encircle the head 

 are furnished with dozens of cup-like suckers, often pointed 

 with sharp curved teeth. It must be a fearful thing for 

 any living creature to come within their compass or within 

 their leap, for, captured by a sudden spring of several feet, 

 made with the rapidity of lightning, and entangled in the 

 slimy serpentine grasp of eight or ten arms, and held by 

 the pressure of some hundreds of exhausted cups, escape is 

 hopeless." 



When the Cephalopods are opened in the dark, they are 

 seen to be vividly phosphorescent. Their senses appear to 

 be very acute ; their tongue is large and fleshy, and par- 

 tially armed with recurved spines ; their powerful jaws 

 act vertically, like the beaks of birds, and their eyes are 

 large and well developed. The Squids and Cuttles, as they 

 are familiarly termed, are nocturnal or crepuscular in their 

 habits, coming to the surface or near the shore in the 

 night, and concealing themselves by day ; they inhabit all 

 parts of the world, and often attain a very considerable 

 size, and their prey is shell-fish, fishes, and Crustacea. 



The Cephalopods change colour, like the chameleon, by 

 means of thousands of contractile vesicles filled with colour- 

 ing matter, with which their skin is furnished : when the 

 animal is in repose the vesicles are contracted and invisible; 

 but when excited, they dilate and show themselves, appear- 

 ing and disappearing with the greatest velocity, forming 

 coloured spots and waves all over the body. 



VOL. I. D 



