Cuttles 391 



long), of a greyish-pink colour spotted with purple- 

 brown. The suckers are in two rows on some arms 

 and in three rows on others. The shell is more lance- 

 shaped and slender, 2^ inches long ; its convex side 

 of a rosy flesh tint. The complete mollusk was taken 

 by Laughrin at Polperro m Cornwall, and the shells 

 have been cast up in Oxwich Bay near Swansea, on 

 the coast of Northumberland, at Mawgan Forth, 

 Cornwall, in Guernsey, and at Magilligan, County 

 Derry. B. elegans has a shell about 4 inches long, some- 

 what similar in colour, etc., to the last mentioned. 



The eggs of the Sepias are large and black, with 

 beaked ends, attached by flexible stalks until they 

 resemble bunches of grapes. These are attached to 

 large weeds in the laminarian zone, where the parent 

 lives upon fishes and crabs. These eggs, thrown 

 up on the beach after a storm, may be hatched 

 in a vessel of sea- water. 



The remaining families have tlie shell reduced 

 to a gladius of thin horn, commonly called the 

 pen. In the family Sepiolidce the fins are en- 

 larged and spring from the back, the tentacles 

 are retractile into pockets as in Sepia, and cuttie 

 the two central upper arms in the male are 

 hectocotylised. The pen is half the length of the 

 body. 



The Little Cuttle (Sepiola atlantica) is common in 

 shallow water on all our coasts, and is frequently 

 taken when shrimping. It is a smooth flesh-coloured 

 creature, less than 2 inches in length. In the male 

 the tentacles are twice the length of the animal, less 

 the arms; but in the female they are little longer 

 than the arms. The late P. H. Gosse recorded its 



Pen of 

 Little 



