68 DIBRANCHIATA.—SEPIAD”. 
height and distance, as the Flying-fish. Many of 
them were captured by birds during their leaps, 
and one individual, in making a desperate effort to 
escape some aquatic pursuer, sprang to a consider- 
able height above the bulwarks of the ship, and 
fell with violence upon the deck.” * 
GENUS SEPIA. 
(The Cuttle.) 
In this genus, which contains our commonest 
species of the Order, the body is oblong and flat- 
tened, with the side-tins extending along its whole 
length. The mantle is free at its 
front margin; the suckers are sup- 
ported by horny hoops with entire 
edges. The internal support is 
shelly, and is composed of a suc- 
cession of extremely delicate plates, 
sustained by slender columns, regu- 
larly arranged, the spaces between 
the plates being filled with air. 
Many of my readers are doubtless 
familiar with the object here repre- 
sented, so frequently cast up by the 
Waves upon our smooth sandy 
beaches: it is the shell of the com- 
mon Cuttle-fish (Sepra officinalis). 
Its use is not only to give firmness 
to the soft and jelly-like body of the animal, but to 
aid it in swimming by its buoyancy ; for though 
the material of which it is composed is stone, from 
the delicacy of its texture and the peculiar arrange- 
ment of the plates, the large proportion of | air 
“ Whaling Voyage round the Globe. 
CUTTLE-BONE. 
