FLYING CUTTLES. 317 



some distance in a horizontal direction, like the flying 

 fish. 



" The head of this cephalopod is a plane, circular 

 disc, surrounded by long arms, furnished on their 

 upper surface with many small circular suckers, which 

 hold with a tenacious grasp. The eyes are large, very 

 perfectly formed, and lodged in capacious cartilaginous 

 orbits. The mouth, like that of most of the cuttle 

 fish tribe, is horny, and shaped like the beak of a 

 parrot. A slender neck connects the head with the 

 body, and is received into the latter as into a capa- 

 cious sheath. The trunk is conical, tapering to a 

 point at the tail, smooth, and composed of a dense 

 white semi-cartilaginous structure, covered with a 

 delicate membrane, or skin, beneath which are de- 

 posited the brilliant colours this mollusc often dis- 

 plays. 



" Near the tail there is a broad fin-like appendage, 

 which can either be expanded horizontally on either 

 side, or folded neatly upon the abdomen. The interior 

 of the back contains an elastic horny rod, or substitute 

 for the ' sepia bone' that occupies the same part in 

 other tribes of cuttle fish. It extends the entire 

 length of the body, and is flattened at its anterior 

 extremity, whilst its caudal end is shaped like a cup, 

 the whole bearing some resemblance to the instrument 

 used for tasting wine from casks. This elastic struc- 

 ture, and the membranous expansion on each side of 

 the tail, are apparently the two principal agents em- 

 ployed by the animal in its protracted leaps through 

 the air. Whether the fin-like appendage is also em- 

 ployed in swimming is very questionable. 



