CEPHALOPODES. 



339 



with numerous organs for seizing their prey, they destroy many Fishes and Crusta- 

 ceous animals. 



Their flesh is eatahle. Their inky secretion is employed in painting, and from it 

 some have asserted that the China ink of commerce is manufactured.* 



The Cephalopods comprise only one order f, which we divide into genera from the nature of 

 the shell. Those which have no external shell formed, according to Linnajus, the single genus 



Sepia, or CuTXLE-FisH.t 

 whicli we now subdivide as follows : — 



The Poulpes {Octopus, Lam.) ; the Polypus of the ancients. 

 These have only two small conical grains of a horny substance imbedded in their back, one on each 

 side ; and their sac, having no fins, represents an oval purse. Their feet are eight in number, all nearly 

 of equal size, very large in proportion to the body, and united together at their insertions by a mem- 

 brane. The Octopus uses them equally in swimming, in creeping, and in seizing its prey. From their 

 length and strength they are formidable weapons, by means of which the prey is entangled and 

 caught ; and they have often been the destruction of swimmers. § The eyes are proportionally small, 

 and the skin can be made at will to contract over them so as to cover them completely. The ink bag 

 is embedded in the liver. The glands of the oviducts are small. 



Some (the Polt/pes of Aristotle) have their suckers in two alternating rows along [the oral margin] of each foot. 

 Tlie common species (Sepia octopodia, Linn.), with a minutely granulous skin, arms six times as long as the 

 body, and garnished with 120 pairs of suckers, infests our coasts in summer, where it destroys an immense 

 quantity of Crustacea. The seas of the tropics produce the Octopus granulatus, Lam. (Sepia rugosa, Bosc.) 

 Seb. ill. ii. 2, 3, known by its more decidedly granulated body, its arms only a little longer than itself, garnished 

 with fifty pairs of suckers. Some believe this to be the species which furnishes the China ink of commerce. 



Other Poulpes (the Eledons of Aristotle) have only a single row of suckers down each foot. In the Mediterranean 

 there is a species remarkable for its musky smell : it is the Octopus moschatus, Lam. — Mem. de la Sac. d'Hisi. 

 Nat. m 4to, pi. 11 ; Ruidelet, 5\G. 



The Argonauts {Argonauta, Linn.)— 

 Are Poulpes with two rows of suckers : the pair of feet nearest the back expand, at their extremities, 

 into a broad membrane. They have not the dorsal cartilaginous spicula of the common Octopus ; but 



we always find these Cuttles in a very thin, 

 regularly-grooved spiral shell, which, from the 

 disproportionate size of the last whorl, has 

 some resemblance to a canoe, the spire repre- 

 senting the poop. The animal uses it too as a 

 boat, for when the sea is calm, groups of them 

 have been seen navigating the surface in it, 

 employing six of their tentacula for oars, and 

 raising, it is said, the two with expanded ex- 

 tremities to serve the purposes of sails. If the 

 waves rise, or any danger threatens, the Argo- 

 naut withdraws all its arms into the shell, con- 

 tracts itself there, and descends to the bottom. 

 Its body does not penetrate within the spire of 

 Fig. 151.— Argonauia the sliell, aud it appears does not adhere to it, 



at least there is no muscular attachment, and this fact has led some authors to think that the Cuttle is 

 a parasite of the same nature as the Hermit-crab 1| ; but as it is always found in the same shell, as we 

 never find any other animal there, although it is very common, and naturally adapted for rising to the 



II Hence M. Rafinesque, and others following him, have made the 

 animal a ^enus under tlie name Ocythoe. [Certainly the opinion of its 

 being a parasite was, until recently, entertained hy most naturaliiits ; 

 but that advocated by Cuvier has been greatly strengthened. 



* However, M. .Al. Remusat has found nothing in Chinese authors 

 to confirm this opinion, [which, the translator may add, is now known 

 to be erroneous!. 



t The discoveries of Mr. Owen have proved the necessity of dividing 

 the class into two orders:—!. Dibranchiata, with two branchiie, of 

 which all the natcrf Cuttle-fish are examples ; and, 2. Tktrabranchi- 

 ATA, with four branchiffi, as in Ntintihn, and as supposed to have been 

 in the mnltilocular-shelled fossil Cephalopodes.^Ko. 



t In Blainvillc's system they form the order Cryptodibrnnchinta. 



§ This fact needs confirmation ; and we need scarcely add, that the 

 stories of their sinking boats and ships are entirely fabulous. — Kd 



rather 



|)roved, by the experiments of Mrs. Power. See the Ma/;, of Niilural 

 History, conducted by Mr. Charlesworth ; and the dissections and 

 arguments of Mr. Owen, in the Proceedii>t;n and Trntisartions of the 

 Zoological Society of London. The animal does not sail as here de- 

 scribed : the use of the expanded arms is to retain the animal within 

 its shcll.l 



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