HABITS OF THE ARGONAUT. 523 



performed by the wide alar expansions. They may assist, 

 however, in extending the surface of the mantle for the 

 purpose of aeration. 



On our passage home, I had numerous opportunities of 

 observing the animals of Aryonauta tuberculosa, and A. 

 Mans, in the living state, both species having been cap- 

 tured by us in large numbers by means of a trawl as they 

 came to the surface of the South Atlantic, in calm weather, 

 at the decline of day, in company with Carinaria, Hyalcea, 

 Firola, and Cleodora. My observations all tend to prove, 

 as might have been expected, the accuracy of Madame 

 Power and M. Rang, and the fanciful nature of the 

 statements of Pliny, Poli, and the poets. It is quite true 

 that the female Argonaut can readily disengage herself 

 from the shell, when the velamentous arms become col- 

 lapsed, and float apparently useless on each side of the 

 animal, and it is equally certain that she has not the ability 

 or perhaps the sagacity, to enter her nest again, and 

 resume the guardianship of her eggs. On the contrary, 

 she herself, if kept in confinement, after darting and 

 woundinsr herself against the sides of the vessel she is 



O D 



confined in, soon becomes languid, and very shortly dies. 

 Numbers of male Argonauts were taken by us, at the 

 same time, without any shells, and this being the season 

 of ovoposition, may account for the females, in such a 

 number of instances, being found embracing their shell- 

 nests. As a convincing proof that the thin shell of the 

 Argonaut is employed by the female as a safe receptacle 

 in which to deposit her eggs, I dissected a specimen of 

 Argonauta tuberculosa, which was firmly embracing the 

 shell, which contained a large mass of eggs occupying the 



