: 



SERPEXTIM:. 



we had ever before witnessed. Fer*cuted probably by the Albacore 

 (which iclect thii tranquil time to descend deep iu the water, and to 

 rove fir from the Mp in queat of food), they roae from the sea iu 

 large flocks, leaping over ita smooth surface, much in the name 

 manner, and to the same height and distance, aa the Flying-Fish. 

 Many of them were captured by bird* during their leaps ; and one 

 individual, in making a desperate effort to eacape some aquatic pursuer, 

 prang to a considerable height above the bulwarks of the ship, and 

 fell with violence upon the deck." In the appendix, the Flying-Squid 

 is again noticed. " The head of this cephalopod," says the author, 

 "is a plane circular disc, surrounded by long arms, furnished on 

 their upper surface with many circular suckers, which hold with a 

 tenacious grasp. The eyea are large, very perfectly formed, and 

 lodged in spacious cartilaginous orbits. The mouth, like that of most 

 of the cuttle-fish tribe, is horny, and shaped like the beak of a parrot 

 A slender neck connects the head to the body, and is received into 

 the latter aa into a capacious sheath. The trunk is conical, tapering 

 to a point at the tail, smooth, and composed of a dense white cartila- 

 ginous structure covered with a delicate membrane or akin, beneath 

 which are deposited the brilliant colours this mollusc often displays. 

 Near the tail is a broad fin-liko appendage, which can either be ex- 

 panded horizontally on either side, or folded neatly upon the 

 abdomen. The interior of the back contains an elastic horny rod, or 

 substitute for the sepia bone, that occupies the same part in some 

 other tribes of the Cuttle-Fish. It extends the entire length of the 

 body, and is flattened at ita anterior extremity, whilst its caudal end 

 is shaped like a cup ; the whole bearing some resemblance to the 

 instrument used for tasting wine from casks. This elastic structure 

 and the membranous expansion on each side the tail are apparently 

 the two principal agents employed by the animal in its protracted 

 leap* through the air. Whether the fin-like appendage is also employed 

 in swimming is very questionable." One kind of Loligo, captured 

 in the Pacific Ocean, in 34 N. lat., which measured six inches in its 

 entire length, must, from the description of its hooks, have been an 

 Onychotrutlia. This individual leaped from the sea over the high 

 bulwarks of the ship, and alighted on the deck at a time when vast 

 flocks of the game species were seen leaping around, and often striking 

 with violence against the bows of the vessel, the sea being compara- 

 tively smooth. It waa much injured by the violence with which it 

 struck the deck. Another species with ita two long tentacles furnished 

 at the extremities with rows of luckers (acetabula) instead of horny- 

 hooked appendages, resembling the above iu size and form, wan 

 obtained in the Pacific. The prevailing colours were silver-white and 

 steel-blue, spread with red spots and tints of violet and purple, a 

 brilliant and very beautiful spot of emerald-green being placed imme- 

 diately above each eye. Mr. Bennett concludes by stating that they 

 noticed examples of this family of Cephalopoda from the equator to 

 34 N. Int., and 16 S. lat in the Pacific Ocean. 



The size of the naked cephalopoda varies greatly. Some are of very 

 large dimensions, and others the Sepiolte for instance very small. 

 Mr. Swainaon (' Malacology ') remarks that he saw many caught on 

 the shores of Sicily, and that two would be a good load, their arms 

 being aa thick aa those of a man. 



We must take with some grains of allowance the stories collected 

 by Drays de Montfort : such as that of Dens, a northern navigator, 

 who, according to Dr. Shaw, avowed that he lost in the African seas 

 three of his men, while they were employed during a calm in scraping 

 the sides of his Teasel, by the attack of a monster of this kind, 

 which suddenly appeared, seized them in its arms, and drew them 

 tinder water in spite of every effort to save them, and that tbe thick- 

 ocas of one of the creature's arms, which waa cut off iu the contest, 

 waa that of a mizen-mast, whiUt the suckers were of the size of pot- 

 lids. Then again, another crew, it waa alleged, were similarly 

 attacked off the coast of Angola. A gigantic cuttle-fish' suddenly 

 threw ita arms across the vessel, and waa on the point of dragging it 

 to the bottom, when tbe crew succeeded in cutting off its arms with 

 swords and hatchets. When their danger was moat imminent, they 

 prayed to St. Thomas for aid, and, in gratitude for their deliverance, 

 dedicated, on their return home, a picture representing their perilous 

 encounter, to tbe saint in his chapel at St Malo. Dr. Hamilton gives 

 an engraving of this adventure in the volume on 'Amphibious Carni- 

 vore,' in the ' Naturalist's Library,' and beneath it is printed, " Thu 

 Krakrn, supposed a Sepia, or Cuttle-Fish (from Deny* Montfort)." Dr. 

 Hhaw obaervea that the existence of some enormously large species of 

 the cuttle-fish tribe can hardly be doubted ; and that though some 

 accounts may have been much exaggerated, there is sufficient cause 

 fur believing that such species may very far surpass all that are 

 generally observed about tbe coasts of European seas. The last 

 observation may be safely admitted ; but the account given by 1 >r. 

 rihaw of the narrative of Dens affords one of the many proofs that a 

 story rarely loses ant thing in iu progress. That narrative is suffi- 

 ciently marvellous ; but on turning to it aa recorded by Denys de 

 Montfort, we find that only two of Dens'a men are stated to have 

 been carried off; the third having been rescued, though he died 

 deliriou* on the night following the encounter. The suckers are 

 described as having been aa large as ladles (cueiller a pot), and the 

 ann, at iU baae, a* big aa a fore-yard (vergue d'un m&t de misaine). 

 In Show's lectures the yard is magnified to a must, and the ladles are 



promoted to pot-lids. The notion that the celebrated Kraken is not 

 to be considered as a wild and groundless chimera, but aa either 

 identical with or nearly allied to a colossal cuttle-fish, is supported in 

 Black wood's ' Magazine,' vol. ii. A writer in the same work, vol. iii., 

 attacks the opinion attempted to be suntained in voL ii. 



The other genera of Sepiadte are Gunaltu, Gray, with only one 

 species; Bdotcuthu, Minister, with six species ; LeptotetUku, Meyer, 

 with one species ; Ckeirotcutliii, D'Orb., with two species; lliitroteu- 

 Mi, D'Orb., with two species ; Onychoteuthit, Lichtenstein, with six 

 species; Enoploteutkit, D'Orb., with ten specie*; Ommattrephtt, D'Orb. 

 witli fourteen species. [OMBAtVOMBA ; OJIM.VSTBEI'IIES.] 



SE'PIOLA. [SKI-IAD.*.] 



SEPIOTE'UTHIS. fSxPUD*.] 



SEPS. [SEPBID*; BoBOOUL] 



SEPSIDJ-;, a family of Lizards. The type of this family is the 

 genus Sepi, of which the Sepi Chalcida of Bonaparte and other 

 naturalists may be taken as the type. [SCINCID.E.] The following is 

 Dr. J. E. Gray's definition of this family : Rostral plate rather Urge, 

 square. Nostrils in the front edge of a small shield, in a notch at the 

 hinder side of the rostral plate. Supranaaal distinct, contiguous or 

 united, frontonanal none (or small on the side of the face), fronto- 

 parietal often wanting, sometimes united, interparietal triangular. 

 Tougue flat, scaly, nicked at the tip. Teeth conical, simple. Palate 

 not toothed, with a deep central longitudinal groove behind. Eye* 

 distinct, with connivent eyelids. Lower eyelid scaly, or with a trans- 

 parent disc. Body fusiform or subcylindrical, elongate. Scales 

 smooth. Toea simple, unequal, clawe J. Tail conical, pointed. 



In the ' Catalogue ' of the specimens in the British Museum, Dr. 

 Gray describes seven genera and seven specie?. They are as follows : 

 a. Rostral rather produced, sharp-edged, with a large nasal notch. 

 Head wedge-shaped. 



1. Sphaenopt. Legs 4. Mental shield small Lower eyelid trans- 

 parent. 



S. teptoida, the Sphenops ; a native of Egypt 



2. Scelotet. Legs 2, posterior. Mental shield Urge. Lower eyelid 

 scaly. 



5. lifts, the Bipes ; from the Cape of Good Hope. 



b. Rostral rounded, erect. Head pyramidicaL 



3. Gongyltu. Legs 4. Toes 5-5. Body subfusiform. Lower eyelid 

 transparent. Frontoparietal shield none. Ears simple, 



G. octUaliu, the Tiliguga ; a native of Egypt 



4. Tltyna. Legs 4. Toes 5-5. Body fusiform. Lower eyelid 

 transparent Frontoparietal shield distinct Ears toothed in front 



T. Bogerii, the Thyrus ; from Mauritius. 



5. Amphiylouut. Logs 4. Toes 5-5. Body elongate, cylindrical. 

 Ears distinct Lower eyelid scaly. 



A. Aitrulabi, the Keneux ; a native of Madagascar. 



6. Sept. Legs 4. Toes 3-3. Body cylindrical, elongate. Eon 

 distinct Ix>wer eyelid transparent. 



S. tridactylui, the Cicigna ; a native of Europe. [Scixcio.E.] 



7. ffcteromclet. Legs 4. Toes 2-3. Body cylindrical, elongate. 

 Ears indistinct Lower eyelid transparent. 



II. Ufaurilanicui, the Heteromele; from Algiers. 



SEPTA'RIA, a genus of Acepalous Mollutca, belonging to the 

 family Tubicoldea. It bos the tube testaceous, very long, g>>ntly 

 attenuated posteriorly, and divided internally by arched incomplete 

 partitions. Anterior extremity terminated by two slender tubes, 

 which are not chambered iu the interior. 



& arcnaria is described and figured by Sir Everard Home in the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1 800, under the name of Teredo 

 gigantta. It lives in sand in the Indian sea*. 



SKKGESTES. [PALKMOMD.B.] 



SKRIALARIA. [PoLYZOA.] 



SERIA'NA, an entirely tropical South American and West Indian 

 genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Napindacctr, uamud by 

 Schumacher after Serjeant, a French friar and botanist, but the 

 genus is also and more commonly written fvrjania. The specie* 

 consist of climbing or twining shrubs. S. tritcrnata is acrid and 

 narcotic, and employed for the purpose of stupifying full. 



SKRIATOPORA. [MADREPOILKA.] 



8ERICA. [MELOLONTUIDA.] 



SKKICOSTOMA. [NKUHOITRIU.] 



SKRICULUa [MBHL'i.u>.K.J 



8ERISOMUS. [CccnuDJB.j 



SK'ROLia [IsoroDA.] 



SKItors MKMBRANE& [MKMBIUNK.] 



SKIU'KNTA'HIA. [AKlaTOLoaiiAci 



SKIIPEXTINE, a rock regarding whose origin geologists have dif- 

 It is described as an irregularly overlying uiam in the Li/ai .1 

 district of Cornwall, as a dyke at PorUoy, and as nodular aggregations 

 in the granite of Abcrdeeuiihirc. The relation in which it staudi to 

 Diallago Rock (a compound of diallage and felspar) in very intimate, 

 both in the Alps, in the Slu-tlam! Ile, ami in Cornwall. In fact the 

 composition of these rocks is scarcely more different than m:iy In; 

 seen between largely crystalli'ed and fine-grained greenstone. V< im 



