THE EUKOPEAN SEAS. 



161 



In the descriptions of the other provinces, no 

 notice has been taken of that large and highest 

 order of Mollusca — the Cephalopods, or Cuttle- 

 fishes ; they form, it is true, no insignificant pro- 

 portion of our Celtic marine fauna, amounting to 

 fourteen species, yet some of these can hardly be 

 considered as more than the summer visitants of 

 our seas, nor moreover are there any which are 

 peculiar to our province. As an order, the Cepha- 

 lopods increase in numbers and in representative 

 forms as we proceed from cold to warmer regions, 

 so that their history properly belongs to the Lusi- 

 tanian zone of the European seas. These animals 

 have been described in the general work of M. 

 D'Orbigny, whilst the forms which occur in the 

 Mediterranean are the subject of a monograph by 

 M. Verany, of which the illustrations are the truest 

 and most beautiful representations which have ever 

 been given of these forms : from these sources, and 

 by the notices of some few other naturalists, the 

 number and distribution of the species of the order 

 belonging to the European seas, may be easily de- 

 termined ; it may be fairly doubted, however, 

 whether our knowledge now is not relatively far less 

 complete than it is with reference to many of the 

 lower orders of Mollusca. 



The Cephalopods are migratory animals, wily and 

 cautious, quick-sighted, rapid in their movements : 

 many are pelagic, perhaps nocturnal also ; the little 

 Spirulce must swarm somewhere in Lusitanian lati- 



M 



