THE CUTTLE-FISH. 



175 



piled loosely upon one another. The upper portion of this chambered division of the shell of the 

 P^eleinnite is enclosed in a thin shell- wall.* The chambers themselves, and septa which divide them, 

 are traversed vertically on one side by a niiisute pearly tube, called the "siphuncle." The 

 chambered portion is called the " phragmacone. "f Rising above the "conotheca," a thin shelly 

 substance is sometimes found, This, which is called by Huxley the " pro-ostracum," is believed to 

 .be the homologue of a portion of the pen of the Cuttle-fish. 



In addition to this, we now know certainly that the Belemnite possessed an ink-bag, and that 

 its arms were provided with suckers and hooks, and that it had, like its congeners, 

 a horny beak. 



Long before Professor Huxley had described (in 1864) a nearly perfect 

 Belemnite from the Lias of Lyme Regis, having all its parts associated together, 

 there had been obtained from the Oxford Clay of Chippenham, by Mr. \V. Cun- 

 .nington, F.G.S., specimens of Belemnoteuthis, showing the guard, the phragmacone, 

 the conotheca, the ink-bag, the funnel, the outlines of the fins and poda, with the 



eyes, acetabula, or suckers, and horny hooks. The feet and tentacles in this 



old fossil genus were of nearly equal length, and furnished with a double 

 .alternating series of horny hooks, from twenty to forty pairs on each foot ; the 



fins were large and placed on the centre of each side. 



More than one hundred species of Belemnites have been found in a fossil state, 

 ranging from the Lias to the Chalk, and distributed over the whole of Europe. A 

 .few species have been found in the Chalk of Southern India, in the Jurassic formation 

 .of the Himalayas, and in New Zealand. The guard, which is most commonly the 

 .only part preserved, is very variable in its proportions, being sometimes only 

 half an inch longer than the phragmacone, at others one or even two feet in 

 .length. The genera belonging to this family are: Firstly, Belemnites (already 

 referred to) ; secondly, Belemnitella, of which six species are described from the 

 Chalk and Greensand formations : thirdly, Xiphoteuthis, a curious genus with a 

 : single species from the Lias of Lyme Regis : fourthly, Belemnoteuthis (of Miller BELEMNITE RESTORED. 

 .and Pearce, 1842), from the Oxford Clay; fifthly, Conoteuthis (of D'Orbigny), from 

 the Greensand of France and England, a form which connects the ordinary 

 <Calamaries with the Belemnites. 



, the Eight Arms fur- 

 nished with Horny Hook- 

 lets ; A.Hooklet enlarged; 

 tt, remains of long ten- 

 tacular Arms broken off ; 

 /, position of Excurrent 

 Branchial Orifice; d d, 

 Sheath covered by Man- 

 tle ; a a. Fins; i, Ink- 

 bag : p, Phragmacone ; 

 f, Sipuuncle ; g, Solid- 

 Fibrous Guard or Be- 

 lemuite." 



FAMILY V.-SEPIAD.E. 



Sepia qfftcinalis, the common Cuttle-fish, is one of the most beautiful and 

 curious of British molluscs ; but although its " bone," or shell, is frequently cast up 

 on all the sandy shores, the creature itself is rarely seen and seldom taken. Its 

 body is flattened from back to front, and correspondingly broad laterally. It is rounded 

 below and truncated above, giving to its outline the form of an escutcheon. All around 

 the margin run narrow and delicate fins, one on each side, of equal breadth, except at 

 the extremity, where they meet, and present, as it were, a notched termination to the body. 

 'The back is smooth or slightly tuberculated. The head is much narrower than the body, although in 

 itself broad ; in the region of the eyes it is very prominent, and crowned above with eight rather short, 

 .stout, lanceolate, slightly keeled feet. On their inner sides are four rows of equal and regular, but 

 rather small, suckers, which are globular and stalked, and have simple horny hoops. The margins of 

 'the feet are fringed by a membrane, and the fourth pair are crested. The tentacula are 

 very long, borne upon stout smooth peduncles, terminating in clubs, crested on their backs, and 

 bearing on their flat surface, which is expanded at the sides into a plaited flounce, several rows of un- 

 equal suckers, of which the central are large and few and the terminal ones numerous and minute. 

 The buccal membrane is attached to the arms by web-like processes. 



The colours of this animal resemble the pattern of a Zebra's hide. Centrally, the back is marked 

 iby numerous fine, interrupted, irregular bands of white on a dark brown ground ; laterally, with 



* Called by Huxley the Conotheca ; from eonos, Gr., a cone, and thece, Gr., a sheath, an envelope, a covering. 

 T 1'hragma, Gr., a septum, a partition. 



