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string. It is frequently found in the fish-market, for the arms 

 of the younger animals are eaten and highly prized. 



A near relation of the Octopus is the Eledone moschata, 

 the musJc-eledone, smaller than the animal just described, and 

 furnished with only one row of sucking-disks in each arm. They 

 are shy creatures, fond of hiding in corners; when taken out 

 of the water a delicate odour of musk is perceived. They are 

 very numerous and common in the market, but generally eaten 

 only by the lower classes. 



One of the most interesting and important cephalopods is the 

 Sepia (Sepia officinalis), or cuttlefish, more correctly, cuttle- 

 snail. Its body is oval and flat , sorrounded with a hem of 

 fin. Beneath the skin of the back is found the bone known as 

 os sepiae. Its arms are much shorter than those of the octopus, 

 and are usually folded together in a point. Hidden amongst 

 them is a longer pair of prehensile arms which are darted for- 

 ward when the animal catches its prey. 



What is most interesting in the Sepia are its powers of 

 excreting an inky fluid and changing colour. The former is 

 common to all the species, but the sepia makes a more fre- 

 quent and abundant use of it. This colouring matter, used by 

 artists, is the product of a gland, the so-called ink-bag, the 

 contents of which can be emptied out of the siphon. A small 

 quantity of this fluid expelled with the water is sufficient to 

 enfold the animal in a black cloud , frightening its pursuers 

 and covering the animals' s retreat. This colouring matter is 

 dried and sold in the market, and can even be obtained from 

 fossil animals in a useful state. 



The wonderful play of colour in the living animal proceeds 

 from the cells of the skin, which are filled with an extremely 

 thin colouring matter; muscular fibres, that stretch these cells 

 and alter their size and shape , occasion an almost constant 

 change of tint and the appearance and disappearance of stripes, 

 spots and clouds of colour, that are visible or not, according as 

 the animal is excited or at rest. Besides this, we notice a pe- 

 culiar glittering and iridescence of the skin, occasioned by the 

 breaking of the rays of light through the tiny plates or spangles 

 lyingh thick below the colour-cells. The sepias are perfect ma- 

 sters of this play of colour, as is proved by their adopting the 

 tint of the sand or rocks on which they lie. The sepias are 

 of different sex. When the male courts the female its excite- 

 ment causes its skin to assume the most brilliant colours. There 

 may then be seen vivid zebra like stripes, while the eyes have 



