A PET CEPIIALOrOD. 105 



Do any of our readers know the little Sepiola ? It will be no 

 disrespect to our readers to assume that not one in ten of them 

 know anything about it. The fact is, this engaging little crea- 

 ture, although by no means uncommon around our southern 

 coast, was all but unknown, excepting by name, even to na- 

 turalists themselves, until Mr. Gosse fished it up from Wey- 

 mouth Bay, and gave us that most entertaining account of its 

 habits in his book on the " Aquarium." 



Hardly an inch in length, with an almost globular body 

 furnished with prominent fins, the Sepiole is described as a 

 sprightly and beautiful little creature, altogether unlike what one 

 would expect in a genuine Cephalopod. It darts about in the 

 aquarium with the greatest vivacity and grace, and occasionally 

 poises itself in mid-water, hovering like a Moth over a flower. 

 As a general rule, it keeps its two long tentacula coiled up out of 

 sight between its shorter arms, but the little Cephalopod can 

 shoot them out to their full length when occasion requires, and 

 make good use of them too, as Mr. Gosse once had proof one of 

 his little pets having seized hold, with these organs, of a poor 

 shrimp, on which the tiny beak was soon seen busily at work. 

 But perhaps the most interesting circumstance connected with 

 the Sepiole is the singular manner in which it perpetually changes 

 its colour; and, as this property is common more or less to all 

 the Cephalopods, we will give in full the passage in which Mr. 

 Gosse refers to it. 



It is almost impossible, -it seems, to name any definite colour 

 as that proper to the animal. " Now it is nearly white or 

 pellucid, with a faint band of brown specks along the back, 

 through which the internal viscera glisten like silver. In an 

 instant the specks become spots that come and go, and change 

 their dimensions and their forms, and appear and disappear 

 momentarily. The whole body arms, fins, and all the parts 

 which before appeared free, display the spots, which, when 

 looked at attentively, are seen to play about in the most singular 

 manner, having the appearance of a coloured fluid injected with 

 constantly varying force into cavities in the substance of the 

 skin of ever-changing dimensions. Now the spots become rings, 

 like the markings of a panther's skin ; and, as the little creature 

 moves slightly, either side beneath the fins is seen to glow with 

 metallic lustre, like that of gold-leaf seen through horn. Again, 



