256 Lamarck's Genera of Shells. 



head, in the centre of the arms ; its orifice is circular, membranous, 

 more or less fringed, and contains internally two hard, horny man- 

 dibles, similar in form and substance to those of a parrot's bill, 

 which are hooked, and shut one into the other. Within the cavity 

 of the beak is a membrane, furnished with several rows of small 

 unequal teeth. With this formidable weapon, the sepia devours 

 crabs, lobsters, and even shell-fish, which it crushes with its beak, 

 and then completes their trituration in its muscular stomach, which 

 almost resembles the gizzard of a bird. 



The bladder which contains the black fluid, called the sepia ink, 

 is placed near the caecum; it is connected with the extremity of the 

 intestinal canal by a small tube, and terminates at the anus, whose 

 orifice opens into the funnel at the anterior part of the body of the 

 animal. By this canal the sepia ejects the inky fluid contained in 

 the bladder, when pursued by an enemy, and escapes the threatened 

 danger, by the obscurity it imparts to the surrounding water. It 

 is said that the indian ink is prepared from the black fluid of some 

 species of sepia. 



The sepke are not hermaphrodite, like most of the other mol- 

 lusca, but consist of male and female individuals ; the latter lay 

 clusters of soft eggs, connected together like a bunch of grapes. 

 They are supposed at first to be yellowish, and to become blackish 

 after they are fecundated. 



Type. Sepia officinalis*. (Idem. Linn.) 



Body smooth on both sides ; pedunculated arms very long ; dor- 

 sal bone elliptical. Mediterranean, English Channel, &c.t. PI. vi. 

 Fig. 238. 2 Species. 



Fifth Order. 

 Heteropoda. (3 Genera.) 



Body free, elongated, swimming horizontally. Head distinct ; 

 two eyes. No coronet of arms on the head, nor foot under the 

 belly or neck, for creeping. One or more membranes for swim- 

 ming, not disposed in regular order, nor in pairs. 



* Of the shops. 



t In some former instances, la manche, (the channel,) has inadvertently he 



ritten la mancha. 



