64 ECONOMY IN CREATION. 



tion of tlie beautiful fitness of the organization for 

 the requirement. 



This use of the funnel, and of the sucking arms, so 

 different from their normal purposes, affords additional 

 examples of that Divine economy in creation, which, 

 when a new function is ordained, does not always form 

 new and special organs for the necessity, but adapts 

 some already employed in other service for the new 

 work ; while, still, both the one and the other function 

 are fulfilled with such perfection, as shows that every 

 emergency was foreseen and provided for in the mighty 

 plan, and that it was not for want of resources that 

 distinct actions are performed by the same instru- 

 mentality. We admire the skill of the artisan who 

 can effect different operations with the same tool, 

 especially when we see that each kind of work is of 

 faultless excellence. 



The ordinary employment of the sucking arms is 

 no doubt the same as in other Cephalopoda, the cap- 

 ture and retention of prey. Of this I saw an instance 

 in the case of one of my Sepiol^ which had seized a 

 shrimp {Crangon trisjnnosus) , a sand-burro wer like 

 itself, and was, when I saw it, holding it firmly against 

 the horny jaws, which were devouring it. The dis- 

 charge of ink through the funnel I have also witnessed, 

 though this is far from being a frequent action with 

 this species. One of them that had been for a day or 

 two in an Aquarium, and was evidently at home there, 

 I put into another vessel. No other animal was 

 present, but the strangeness of the new abode 

 evidently frightened it ; it darted about in manifest 

 alarm and excitement, and presently shot forth from 



