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a metallic bluish glitter. After pairing, the female lays its large, 

 black, pear-shaped egg-capsules singly upon the branches of 

 coral or algae, usually close together, the whole looking like 

 a bunch of grapes. When the young leave the eggs, they are 

 exactly like their parents, and at once begin to change colour 

 and spurt ink. The sepia is in great request in the market; 

 the meat is eaten and the bone or shell used for polishing 

 wood and making toothpowder. 



Among the inhabitants of the Aquarium may be seen, particu- 

 larly in winter, the Calmar or Squid (Loligo vulgaris). These 

 semitransparent creatures, shaped like winged arrows, are un- 

 fortunately far too sensitive for confinement. Beating their 

 delicate wings like a flock of birds, they continually swim 

 backwards and forwards without turning until they die, which 

 is generally a few days after they are caught. They are never 

 seen at rest, and the slightest disturbance throws them into 

 violent agitation, when they dart about like arrows, and their 

 milk-white bodies seem to blush rosy-red. They are fed with 

 small shrimps, and, when feeding, use their prehensile arms 

 like the sepias. They are greatly liked as food. Their bone or 

 shell is transparent as glass, very flexible, and shaped like a 

 feather. They excrete the inky fluid in great quantities, whence 

 their Italian name of calamajo (ink-pot). 



The Snails, like the cephalopods, have generally a clearly 

 distinct head , and a memberless body provided with a flat 

 base for creeping , the so-called foot. In many species , the 

 greater part of the abdomen is enclosed in a spiral calcareous 

 shell or house , into which the rest of the body also can be 

 withdrawn. This shell is excreted by the so-called mantle , a 

 fold of the skin, and is connected with the animal only by a 

 muscle. Scientific conchological selections bear witness to the 

 beauty of these shells- in form and colour. Most kinds belong 

 to marine snails. The chief of those from the Gulf of Naples 

 which are in the Aquarium, are the following: 



The Worm-snail(Vermetus); remarkable for the irregularity 

 of its shell, which is fixed to one place. At first sight it exactly 

 resembles the twisted calcareous tubes of the Serpulae, a group 

 of hairy marine- worms; but on looking closer, you recognize 

 the stopper-shaped head of the snail, with its short feelers , 

 and see that it is very different from the brightly- coloured 

 feathery head-gills of the Serpulae. These animals feed on 

 the little cray-fish and worms that play near them in the water. 

 AVhen they are disturbed, they at once retreat to the bottom 



