THE COMMON SEPIA. 43 



As they are lively beings and rapidly consume oxygen, 

 it is better to place them in a wide pan, the water being 

 only just deep enough to cover the eggs. 



When hatched, the little Sepise are about half an inch 

 in length, and with very short tentacles. As soon as 

 they are hatched, they traverse the vessel and survey it 

 curiously, propelling themselves by means of the siphon. 

 If a layer of sand be at the bottom of the pan, their 

 course can be traced by means of the grooves which 

 each effort of propulsion makes in the sand. When they 

 have taken a leisurely survey of their new home, they 

 hover over one spot, blow out the sand so as to form a 

 cavity, and settle down in it with a curious air of being 

 at home. While they are traversing the pan, they per- 

 petually change colour, and ndt for two consecutive 

 seconds do they retain the same hue. Like the chame- 

 leon, the Sepia continues to change its colour for some 

 time after death. I do not, however, find that Sepise 

 assimilate themselves to the colour of surrounding objects, 

 as the chameleon mostly does. Thus we have seen how 

 perfectly, yet how simply, the soft-bodied and helpless 

 mollusc can be transformed into the terror of the seas, 

 and become fierce, active, voracious, and possessing a set 

 of weapons which combine the terrors of the tiger's 

 mighty paw and the lithe coils of the equally terrible 

 boa-constrictor. 



