286 SUPPLEMENT 
it would seem that the text of Aristotle which speaks of this 
particularity in the natural history of the sepie has been 
interpreted in a different manner by translators and com- 
mentators. Most of them, however, are inclined to believe 
that there is no intercourse, since they say that the male be- 
dews the eggs with the seminal fluid when they have been 
deposited by the female, and that it is this fluid which, being 
viscous, attaches them one to another, and forms them into a 
cluster. This appears to be more than doubtful. Be that, 
however, as it may, the following is what Aristotle says re- 
specting the female. “ Fifteen days after she has been full 
she throws out her eggs, near land, among the alge, the reeds, 
and other bodies which may be found upon the shore, in its 
anfractuosities, and even around the sticks which fishermen 
have placed there for the very purpose. She does not lay 
them all at once, but at several attempts, as if she were in a 
state of suffering. This operation lasts fifteen days. After 
the laying, the female herself sheds her ink upon her eggs, 
which turns them from white to black, and causes them to 
increase in bulk. It is then that the male bedews them with 
the seminal liquor; a fact,” he adds, “ which, though not 
having been observed but with regard to the sepia, ought, 
however, very probably be extended to the loligo and oc- 
topus.” 
We have just said, that according to the same author, it is 
this fluid which unites the eggs, and gives to them the appear- 
ance of a cluster of grapes. In fact, on our coasts these heaps 
of the sepia’s eggs, more or less considerable, are designated 
by the name of sea-grape, in consequence of their form and 
colour, which is most usually black; some, however, have 
been observed which were altogether white, and which con- 
tained young sepiz as much advanced as those which were 
in eggs of the finest black. Accordingly we cannot be assured 
to what the coloration of these eggs is attributable; but it is 
