SECT. XI. 



XAKED CEPHALOPODS. 



245 



Ncikecl Cephalopods. 



The Naked Cephalopods have an internal skeleton 

 instead of a shell, in the shape of a transparent horny 

 pen in the Calamary, or the well-known internal shell 

 of the Cuttle Fish ; they are divided into Octopods and 

 Decapods, according to the number of their tentacles : 

 the Poulpe, or Octopus vulgaris, is a type of the first, 

 the Sepia or Cuttle Fish, fig. 179, and the Loligo 

 vulgare or Squid, are types of the last. These crea- 

 tures may be seen on rocky coasts, or in the ocean 

 hundreds of miles distant 

 from land. They are noc- 

 turnal, gregarious, carni- 

 vorous, and fierce, their 

 structure enables them to 

 be tyrants of the ocean. 

 They are strange-looking, 

 repulsive creatures, with 

 staring bright-coloured 

 eyes, while crawling awk- 

 wardly on their fleshy arms 

 head downmost ; yet they 

 are the most highly or- 

 ganized of all mollusks. 



They have a distinct 

 brain, enclosed in a carti- 

 laginous skull, and all 

 their muscles are attached 

 to cartilages. The lower 

 part of their body is sur- 

 rounded by a mantle, 

 which extends in front to 

 form a gill chamber, in 



which there is a pair of plume-like gills ; a funnel or 

 siphon projects from the gill chamber immediately 



Fig. 179. Cuttle Fish. 



