Mollusks. 3997 



shows that every emergency was foreseen and provided for in the 

 mighty plan, and that it was not for want of resources that distinct 

 actions are performed by the same instrumentality. We admire the 

 skill of the artisan who can effect different operations with the same tool, 

 especially when we see that each kind of work is of faultless excellence. 



The ordinary employment of the sucking arms is no doubt the same 

 as in other Cephalopoda, the capture and retention of prey. Of this 

 I saw an instance in the case of one of my Sepiolae which had seized 

 a shrimp {Crangon trispinosus), a sand-burrower like itself, and was, 

 when I saw it, holding it firmly against the horny jaws, which were 

 devouring it. The discharge of ink through the funnel I have also 

 witnessed, though this is far from being a frequent action with this 

 species. One of them that had been for a day or two in an aquarium, 

 and was evidently at home there, I put into another vessel. No other 

 animal was present, but the strangeness of the new abode evidently 

 frightened it ; it darted about in manifest alarm and excitement, and 

 presently shot forth from its funnel a cloud of inky fluid to a distance 

 of several inches ; another and another discharge succeeded in rapid 

 sequence, and it was not for some time that the animal recovered its 

 equanimity. It did not appear to me that this fluid could be of much 

 service to the little creature in the way of concealment ; for although 

 the matter was tolerably copious and densely black, it did not diffuse 

 itself in the water, but remained in masses, and when moved with a 

 stick was drawn into slimy strings. 



Perhaps the facts above recorded may not possess to others the 

 novelty that they had to me. Dr. Johnston, in his admirable ' Intro- 

 duction to Conchology,' has not included any species of Cephalopoda 

 in his enumeration of burrowing Mollusca ; nor have I ever read of 

 any that were known to possess the habit. I ought to have said that 

 it takes place to no greater extent than to bring the animal just level 

 with the surface of the sand, which is generally thinly spread over the 

 posterior part. The eyes and the dorsal edge of the mantle are al- 

 ways exposed ; and if we carefully heap the sand over these parts, it 

 is in a moment blown away by the action of the funnel, or removed 

 by the undulation of the mantle-edge. 



Among the many hundreds of marine animals which have stocked 

 the aquarium at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, I have 

 sent up a dozen or more of the Sepiola, where I hope they may live 

 long, and entertain many visitors with their amusing habits and pretty 

 appearance. P. H. Gosse. 



Weymouth, June 28, 1853. 



