6S THE OCTOPUS. 



less on his horse, and scanning from some elevated knoll a wide 

 expanse of prairie, in readiness to swoop upon a weak or un- 

 armed foe. Poised near the surface of the water, like a hawk in 

 the air, the sepia moves gently to and fro in its tank by graceful 

 undulations of its lateral fins, — an exquisite play of colour occa- 

 sionally taking place over its beautifully barred and mottled back. 

 When thus tranquil, its eight pedal arms are usually brought close 

 together, and droop in front of its head, like the trunk of an 

 elephant, shortened ; its two longer tentacular arms being coiled 

 up within the others, and unseen. Only when some small fish is 

 given to it, as food, is its facility of rapid motion displayed. Then, 

 quickly as a kingfisher darts upon a minnow, it pounces on its 

 prey, enfolds it in its fatal " cuddle " "" or embrace, and retires to a 

 recess of its abode to tear it piece-meal with its horny beak, and 

 rend it into minutest shreds with its jagged tongue. In shallow 

 water, however, it will often rest for hours on the bottom, after a 

 hearty meal, looking very much like a sleepy tortoise. The cuttle- 

 fishes are so voracious that fishemien regard them as unwelcome 

 visitors. Some locaHties on our own coasts are occasionally so 

 infested by them that the drift-netting has to be abandoned, in 

 consequence of their devouring the fish, or rendering them unsale- 

 able by tearing them with their beaks as they hang in the meshes. 

 The Sepia seldom lives long in confinement. Although, like 

 the calamaries, it often swims gently forward by the use of its side 

 fins, its usual mode of rapid progress is the same as that of the 

 octopus ; namely, darting backwards by the ejection of a stream 

 of water through the funnel. In a limited space, like an aquarium 

 tank, there is not sufficient room for its rocket-like rush, and 

 therefore its hinder extremities so frequently come in contact with 

 the rock-work, that the skin is worn through until the edge of the 



ill the 'Imperial Dictionary' as from the Saxon verb ^ciidele;^ in Welsh, 

 ' aiziatv ; ' and in the Armorican, ' aittaff^^ or ^ cuddy o,^ all signifying the sense 

 of withdrawing or hiding ; hence our pet word ' cuddle.' " 



