162 



MEDITERRANEAN PROVINCE. 



tudes, for their shells are brought by thousands to 

 the coast of the Peninsula, yet they are never cap- 

 tured alive there. 



Philippi met with fifteen species of Cephalopods 

 in the seas of the Two Sicilies ; of these, the large 

 and ubiquitous " poulp " {Octopus vulgaris) occurs 

 abundantly in the Eastern Mediterranean ; but two 

 other species (0. velifer and 0. catenulatus) have 

 not been taken, neither was Argonauta argo, 

 though there is reason for supposing that it occurs 

 there. On the other hand, Eledone macropodius, 

 an abundant Greek species, and which was captured 

 by Ed. Forbes at Cerigo, is not noticed by Philippi. 

 The more open-sea researches of Ed. Forbes may 

 perhaps account for some of the differences in the 

 lists of these two naturalists, for in another place 

 ("Travels in Lycia," vol. ii. p. 100), we find that 

 Octopus, Eledone, Sepia, Sepiola, and Loligo occur 

 in the Eastern Mediterranean ; this is exactly the 

 generic assemblage given by Philippi. 



From an inspection of all the lists of various ob- 

 servers, we may fairly infer that the Cephalopods 

 are scarcer in the Eastern Mediterranean than they 

 are in the central portion. 



Philippi is of opinion, that some of Verany's 

 more western species (from the gulf of Genoa) may 

 be found in Sicilian seas, though from their scarcity 

 he had failed to meet with them. Apart from 

 specific forms, the Cephalopods of the Eastern as 

 compared with those of the Western Mediterranean, 



