
THE ARGONAUT. 237 
































was, when found in the gill-chamber of the female, supposed 
to be a parasite, and was called Hecto-cotylus. 
The shelly matter is secreted by the first pair, or dorsal 
arms, which are broadly expanded towards the ends, and 
also by the sides of thé body, which are more closely con- 
nected with the shell than many naturalists have supposed. 
But there are no true muscular attachments as in other mol- 
lusea, of the animal to the shell. 
I have seen fine specimens of Argonauta in the cabinet of 
Mr. Arnold, of Worcester, collected by himself; showing 
where the shell had been broken and repaired, the new 
layer in some places having been deposited by the sides of 
the body from the inside of the shell, and in others by the 
expanded arms from the outside. The anterior edges of 
these arms, however, seem to possess alone the power of 
secreting calcareous matter, as the fractures toward the spire 
were repaired with a deposit more membranous or horny 
than shelly. 
The cuttle was, in more modern times, long supposed to 
have stolen its shell from some mollusk resembling Cari- 
naria, known as the glassy Nautilus. The shell of Carinaria 
I5 very similar, taken by itself, to that of Argonauta strait- 
ened out, but it serves a totally different purpose. The 
Argonaut, separated from its shell, was described by Rati- 
nesque as Todarus, he having described at the same time one 
9f the large naked euttles, as Ocythoé. According to his 
own account, his description being short and careless, the 
two were confounded. He says that the Sicilian fishermen 
call the Argonaut “todaru”; that the apex of the shell is 
blackened by a dark liquor which it emits, although it has 
E ink-bag of the Sepias; and that the eolor of the eggs 
.. 18 black, 

: : The animal was well known to the ancients as the inhabi- 
tant of its own shell, though they described it with poetical 
7 fancy, as sailing in pleasant weather on the surface, usmg its 
broad arms as sails, and the others as oars, and when the 

