242 SEPIADiE. 



Verany, however, considers it as the Sepia elegans of De 

 Blainville, and as distinct. 



It is to be hoped that this pretty cuttle-fish will be 

 found alive before long in our seas. It may easily be dis- 

 tinguished by its narrower body, the great difference of 

 colouring, and the short club-like terminations of its tenta- 

 cular arms. It is a much smaller animal than the last. 

 The largest British example of its shell hitherto taken, 

 measures two and a half inches in length, by ten-twelfths 

 of an inch in its widest part. 



Spirula Peronii, Lamarck. 



Nautilus spirula (of Linnaeus), Turt. Conch. Diction, p. 1 17, f. 77. 

 Spirula Australis, Fleming, Brit. Animals, p. 227. — Thompson, Ann. Nat. 

 Hist. vol. v. p. 10. — Couch, Cornish Fauna, pt. 2, p. 67. 

 „ Peronii, Brit. Marine Conch, p. 227. 



As Professor Owen considers that the animals of the shells 

 usually classed together as the Nautilus spirula of the Lin- 

 nsean school, constitute three distinct species (Peronii, reti- 

 culata, and Australis), we have not ventured to cite any 

 foreign synonyms, since the known shells of this genus 

 cannot (at least by ourselves) be distinguished from each 

 other, and the cephalopod has not hitherto been taken in 

 the British seas. 



In regard to indigenousness, " the claims of the present 

 species,' 1 observed Dr. Fleming, " are doubtful. It is pro- 

 bable that the remains of many other animals, the ordinary 

 inhabitants of the West Indian seas, will occasionally 

 occur on the Irish coast, as in the present instance ; but 

 we have to determine their capability of living in our seas 

 before their right to a place in our Fauna can be esta- 

 blished." 



Shell loosely spiral, thin, semi-transparent, dull white, 

 smooth to the eye, except where the walls of the internal 



