SEPIADjE. CUTTLE. 245 



Fam. SEPIAD^E. 



sepiaJL-cxjttle. 



Sepia officinalis, Linnaaus. Common Cuttle-fish, or 

 Scuttle. — The animal is curious, very flat, with white 

 stripes across its body, the groundwork being dark 

 brown. The head is brown, as well as the arms, but 

 the inside of the latter is white, and is furnished with 

 four rows of suckers. Its two tentacular arms are 

 very long, expanded broadly at the tips, and are also 

 furnished with suckers. The beak is hard aud black* 

 shaped like that of a parrot. 



The common cuttle-fish, theSeche, Seiche, or Casseron, 

 of the French, is very generally eaten by our fishermen, 

 and at Great Yarmouth they bring them in baskets to 

 the houses for sale, recommending them as excellent 

 and wholesome food. Cuttle-fish are often taken on 

 the fishing lines, and will follow the bait to the surface, 

 sucking it and holding fast by their long tentacles,* 

 but we seldom find them alive on the shore, though 

 their white hones are constantly picked up; and an 

 immense number of these bones sometimes strew the 

 beach from Beachy Head to Pevensey, while numbers 

 float on the surface of the water. This was particularly 

 the case there some years ago. It seemed as if there 

 had been some epidemic amongst the cuttles which 

 caused this great mortality, for certainly many basket- 

 fuls of bones might easily have been collected. They 

 are not without their use ; and at Liverpool, cuttle- 

 bones are sold to the druggists for making tooth- 

 powder, as much as twelve hundredweight arriving at 



* < Sea Fish,' &c, by W. B. Lord. 



