THE FOOD OF CUTTLEFISH 85 



with an energy that sometimes sends them leaping 

 high out of the water. Pouncing upon a fish, the squid 

 opens a circlet of arms till then kept close like the 

 ribs of an umbrella, and with these and the two long 

 tentacles which can be shot out from their cases on 

 either side of the head, it grasps its prey. Its hold is 

 rendered secure by the suckers and hooks that stud 

 the tips of the tentacles and the whole length of the 

 arms. Then, bringing the fish up to the mouth and 

 horny beak, it rasps off the flesh by the horny tongue 

 that is the common heritage of all molluscs. So great 

 is the strength which these fringe-finned squid obtain 

 from their food that we have no engines quick enough 

 to catch the larger kinds, and it is only as storm- 

 tossed corpses that we know of monsters with arms 

 as thick as one's thigh and suckers as big as saucers. 

 Yet, great as they are, there is one still mightier, the 

 epitome of the hungry life of the high seas. This 

 is the sperm-whale, which sculls almost at destroyer 

 rate, thrashing the water into foam. Of his seventy 

 feet of length, thirty feet is sheer head and jaws, and 

 with these he despatches the colossal squid ; and it is 

 from the interior of sperm-whales that we have found 

 out what manner of cuttlefish are roaming through 

 the ocean unseen and unsuspected. 



Sea birds also are carnivorous. Their activity, the 

 maintenance of their bodily warmth, no less than the 

 feeding of their young, demand more nourishment 

 than the watery seaweeds can furnish. The year 

 round gulls haunt the coast for any flesh diet that the 



