306 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



Orders, from the composition of their respiratory 

 organs, namely, those that have two branchiae, 1 

 or gills, and those that have four. 2 The first in- 

 cludes those that have no shell, and the second 

 those that have one. The last is further divisible 

 into those whose shell has many chambers, as 

 the Nautilus, and those where it has only one, 

 as the Argonaut, or paper nautilus. 



To the first of these Orders belongs the cuttle- 

 fish* one of the most wonderful works of the 

 Creator. Its mouth is surrounded by eight long 

 fleshy arms, or rather legs, somewhat conical 

 in shape, and acute at the end, moved by innu- 

 merable nerves, furnished from numerous gang- 

 lions : these legs can bend in every direction 

 with the utmost vigour and activity, their sur- 

 face is furnished with many suckers, by which 

 they can fix themselves strongly to any thing 

 they wish to lay hold of, arid by means of 

 which, like the star-fish, 4 they can move from 

 place to place. When this animal walks, in 

 this resembling also the star-fish and sea-urchin, 5 

 it moves with its head and mouth downwards 

 and its body elevated. It swims also and seizes 

 its prey by means of these organs : besides these 

 arms or legs, for they perform the functions 

 of both, there is a pair of long organs, one on 



1 Dibranchiata. 2 Tetrabranchiata. 



3 Sepia. * See above, p. 201. 



* Ibid, p. 212. 



