
260 A CHAPTER ON CUTTLE-FISHES. 
cuttle-fish that builds a shell. There was a very pretty story 
told of her habits, by Aristotle, the old Greek naturalist, 
which every one believed until quite lately. He said that 
she rode on the top of the waves, seated in her boat-like 
shell, and spreading her broad arms to the winds for sails. 
But unfortunately the story has no foundation in fact. She 
either crawls about on the bottom of the sea, or swims quite 
like any other cuttle-fish, shell foremost, only occasionally 
coming to the surface. Strangely enough she holds the two 
broad hand-like extremities of the arms against her body, 
and it is the inside of these arms that secrete the paper-like 
shell, which is only a sort of cradle for her eggs. Not so 
with the pearly Nautilus, which is furnished with a beautiful, 
coiled up, pearly shell, formed on the outside of the animal. 
'This shell is divided into numerous chambers, and the ani- 
mal living in the outer one builds a partition across the back 
part of it as the shell grows. 
Cuttle-fishes are sometimes used for food by the Brazil- 
ians, and different species may be seen in the markets 
where one frequently finds them still alive. Sometimes, 8$ 
he stoops to examine one, its body is suddenly suffused with 
a deep pinkish glow. Before he has time to recover from 
his surprise this color fades, and a beautiful blue takes its 
place as rapidly as a blush sometimes suffuses a delicate 
cheek. The blue, perhaps, is succeeded by a green, and 
then the whole body becomes pink again. One can hardly 
conceive anything more beautiful than this rapid play of 
colors, which is produced by the successive distention of sets 
of little sacks containing fluids of different colors, which are 
situated under the skin. 
The cuttle-fish is also furnished with a bag containing 4 
inky fluid, which, when the animal is attacked or pursued, 
it ejects into the water, thus completely blinding its adver- 
sary and effectually covering its retreat. It is from this 
fluid that the color sepia is made. Beside carrying an ink- 
.. bottle, some species of cuttle-fish are provided with a long» 



