116 A NATURALIST IN CELEBES cs.Yi 



islands in the writings of the distinguished naturalist 

 Bleeker (8). 



There were a considerable number of cuttle-fishes 

 swimming about in the regions of the reef, and they 

 possessed, perhaps to even a still greater degree than 

 European cephalopods, the same remarkable power of 

 adapting the colour of their skin to the colour of the 

 surrounding objects. When I was waiting for the tide to 

 leave the reef, so that I could start upon my expeditions, 

 I would often amuse myself by sitting on the lowest of 

 the pier steps watching the movements and habits of the 

 various animals that were swimming about amongst the 

 brilliant-coloured corals and sponges. On such occasions 

 I often saw advancing slowly over the sea-gardens, in 

 parties of from four to six, a group of cuttle-fish, 

 swimming with an even backward movement, the fringes 

 of their mantles and their arms trembling, and their colour 

 gradually changing to what seemed to me to be an almost 

 infinite variety of hues as they passed over the various 

 beds of the sea-bottom. Then suddenly there would be 

 a commotion in what was previously a calm and placid 

 scene, the striped and speckled reef fishes would be seen 

 darting away in all directions, and of the cuttle-fishes all 

 that remained were four or five clouds of ink in the 

 clear water. The appearance in the neighbourhood of a 

 small shark or other kind of voracious fish was the cause 

 of this sudden agitation, and the cuttle-fishes, after squirt- 

 ing out a cloud of ink to ' throw dust in the eyes ' of their 

 enemy, had, by violent contractions of their mantle, made 

 off. I tried to find out what kinds of fish they were 

 that caused such dismay among the inhabitants of the 

 coral reefs, but the rapidity with which they dart into the 

 shallow water and out again renders it impossible to make 

 even a general determination of their zoological position. 



