60 HABITS OF THE CEPHALOPODA. 



do not bother themselves with spreading their nets for them ; 

 they catch a female, when the others immediately fall upon her, 

 grasp and enlace their arms. This effort of their love ceases not 

 till the fishers have raised them into their boat : even then lliev 

 remain united." A somewhat similar account is found in 

 Verany's work on the Cephalopods of the Mediterranean, where 

 it is possibly derived from the verses of Oppian. 



The deposition of the eggs occurs some days after fecundation. 

 I have been a witness to the deposition of three or four e^o-s. but 



I r" '; ' 



I was not able to distinguish the method of the operation. A 

 female laid about one hundred eggs, about fifty in a corner of the 

 aquarium, and fifty on the opposite side. These eggs were 

 enrolled by their peduncles around the long leaves of Zoster a 

 marina. The larger part of the eggs were laid in the night, for 

 I remarked them in the morning for the first time ; they were 

 already black. 



\Vhen the Sepia is laying, she embraces the leaf of Zostera 

 with her tentacles, and a few instants afterwards the eg- is 

 attached.' The female removed herself but little from her c'<>-s. 



Jr"*!* ' 7 



but she appeared to me to be sick, exhausted ; she died three 

 days after having commenced oviposition, and only a few hours 

 after having attached her last eggs. I do not know whether the 

 death of the animal is attributable to parturition ; bul on this 

 hypothesis I cannot help thinking of Oppian's recital of the death 

 of the Poulpe: "The faial marriage of the Poulpe and its cruel 

 death rapidly succeed each other. Xo sooner does he quit the 

 female, than he falls exhausted on the sands. The female dies 

 also from the pain of the laborious efforts of parturition." Aris- 

 totle also says: "The Sepia lays her eggs near ihe cart h. among 

 the alga\ She only lays them at several efforts, as though the 

 operation is painful to her." 



I opened the female which died during parturition, and found 

 the ovary filled with a considerable quantity of eggs in all stages 

 of development ; (he most advanced were already furnished with 

 a while and opaque covering, but none of them were black like 

 those attached to the Zosteras. The blnck color, then, is 

 acquired at the moment of deposition, and it is probablv due to 

 a secretion of the glands which surround ihe oviduct. The 

 coloration of the eggs has not escaped the observation of 



