Chop. 46.] THE POLYPUS. 417 



CHAP. 45. (29.) THE S-3EPIA, THE LOLIQO, THE SCALLOP. 



The loligo is also able to dart above the surface of the water, 

 and the scallop does the same, just like an arrow as it were. 

 In the ssepia, 23 the male is parti-coloured, blacker than the 

 female, and more courageous. If the female is struck with a 

 fish-spear, the male comes to her aid ; but the female, the in- 

 stant the male is struck, takes to flight. Both of them, as 

 soon as ever they find themselves in danger of being caugbt. 

 discharge 24 a kind of ink, which with them is in place of 

 blood, 25 and thus darkening the water, take to flight. 



CHAP. 46. THE POLYPUS. 



There are numerous kinds of polypi. The land 26 polypus is 

 larger than that of the sea ; they all of them use their arms 27 as 

 feet and hands ; and in coupling they employ the tail, which is 

 forked 28 and sharp. The polypus has a sort of passage in the 

 back, 29 by which it lets in and discharges the water, and which 



would be " quibus natant " " by means of which they swim ;" for Aristotle 

 says, in the corresponding passage, " with the fins that surround the body 

 they swim." 



23 Plautus has a line in his Rudens, which shows that when the sepia 

 was cooked for table, it was customary to take the eyes out. " Bid them 

 knock out his eyes, just as the cooks do with the saepia." 



24 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, states to a similar effect, as also 

 JElian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 34; Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 156. 



25 This so-called ink, Cuvier says, is neither their blood nor their bile, 

 but a liquid that is secreted in a bag peculiar to the animal. It is said, 

 that it is from the juices of certain polypi of the Eastern seas, that the 

 genuine Indian or Chinese ink is made ; but M. Abel Eemusat assures us 

 that he has found nothing in the Chinese writers to confirm this conjecture. 



26 This, as Hardouin says, is the polypus which is found on the sea- 

 shore, and which more frequently comes on dry land than the other kinds. 



27 The arms of the polypus have numerous names with the Latin authors. 

 Ovid calls them "flagella," " whips ;" others again, " cirri" " curls ;" 

 " pedes " " feet ;" " crura " " legs ;" and " crines " " hair." 



28 This, Cuvier says, is quite unintelligible ; for all the polypi have an 

 oval body, of the shape of a bag, and there is nothing in them that bears 

 any resemblance to a tail, forked or otherwise. 



29 This channel, Cuvier says, is in form of a funnel reversed, by means 

 of which the animal draws in and ejects the water that is requisite for its 

 respiration, and discharges the ink and other excretions. It is in the fore- 

 part of the body, and at the orifice of the bag, and not on the back, as 

 Pliny says ; but, as Cuvier remarks, it was very easy for a person to be 

 deceived in this matter, as the head, being in form of a cylinder, and 



VOL. II. E E 



