34 



bather: the habits of the young sepia. 



The young Sepia swims equally well in either direction by 

 the thin transparent border of the mantle, which moves in I 

 sinuous waves with great rapidity. Only when considerably | 

 irritated does it shoot back by the expulsion of water from its J 

 funnel. One baby, when thus irritated, ejected ink twice 

 within one minute of being taken from the egg-capsule. The 

 ink, however, was not in the least enough to obscure its 

 movements. 



Fig. I. Young Sepia officinalis. From below, attached 

 to a glass plate, and drawn with the help of a min or. The 

 ink-sac is seen through the thin integument. 



FiG. 2. From above while in the same position ; the 

 arms are retracted. The line between these two figures 

 represents the actual length of the animal. 



Fig. 3. One of the long arms, w-hich are not seen in 

 Fig. 2. 



In eu.i\<j' youth the chromatophores are not much used, 

 or rather, one should say, the cells are usually kept contracted, 

 so that the animal appears quite pale. Now and again a blush 

 spreads over the back of the head between the eyes, and at the 

 same time the antero-dorsal arms are stretched out. The effect 

 is peculiar ; one seems to see the animal thinking. 



The two postero-ventral arms are very much larger than the 

 others, perhaps three times as large. Next to them come the long 

 arms, which partly he in a sniall fold of the interbrachial 

 membrane; they are the smaUest pair. (Fig. 3). From them 

 the arms increase in size, up to the antero-dorsal pair. 



There are numerous tubercles on the body : six in a row 

 down either side of the back, one under each eye, and a well- 

 marked row on the ridge between the eyes. (Fig. 2.) 



