268 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



a large more or less globular swelling appears, enclosing 

 the third arm of the left side, coiled upon itself. Having 

 attained its full development the sac bursts and releases 

 the arm. The folds which formed the sac now bend 

 back to form a new receptacle into which the spermato- 

 phore is passed. But this is not all. The tip of the 

 newly released arm bears another sac, which sooner or 

 later bursts, forming a long, slender penis, and along the 

 central tube of this the spermatozoa pass from the 

 spermatophore to their destination. Their conveyance 

 thereto forms the last and most amazing feature of this 

 strange history. The male, eager with pent-up desire, 

 and glowing with all the colours of the rainbow, gradually 

 approaches the female of his choice, who apparently awaits 

 him with no little palpitation, and then, with a sudden 

 rush flings himself upon her, and apparently thrusts the 

 penis into her mantle cavity, when at once the whole 

 arm breaks off from his body and remains attached to 

 her person, retaining its vitality, strange as it may seem, 

 for some considerable time, during which, no doubt, 

 the spermatozoa are slowly making their way out of the 

 spermatophore and along the channel prepared for their 

 reception. That the Cuttle-fish are polyandrous there 

 seems to be little room for doubt, inasmuch as no less 

 than four such detached arms have been found beneath 

 the mantle of one female. With the majority of the 

 Cuttle-fish and Octopus tribe the arm is not detached, 

 but when it is so, and this occurs in all the species belong- 

 ing to three different genera, a new arm is grown. 



As a rule, among these animals the males are smaller 

 than the females. In the case of the Argonaut there is 

 a yet more striking difference, for the female possesses 

 a very beautiful shell in which she carries her eggs. This 



