30 



POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



Professor Owen supposes the dilated arms are employed 

 in secreting the shell ; but this does not agree with the 

 opinion of the American writer quoted above. 



The animal of the Argonauta during life, and when 

 unconscious of being observed, is very beautiful, the arms 

 and other visible parts presenting the most lively colours 

 — purple, gold, and silver. At the approach of any ob- 

 ject, it takes in its arms, wraps those which are dilated over 

 the shell, and descends, blackening the water at the same 

 time, if hard pressed, by a discharge of ink, to cover its 

 escape. During the experiments referred to, the animals 

 seemed very shy, and would descend on the approach of 

 any person, except when hungry, at which time they 

 would take food from the hands of Madame Power. 



Mr. Peeve remarks that the arms are not expanded 

 aloft to catch the breeze, as represented by many of our 

 poets; and that he had been told by the Rev. L. B. 

 Larking, who had collected twelve hundred specimens at 

 Messina, that he had never seen one floating on the sea : 

 their natural locality being the deep water. Some of the 

 species have no shell; the others are A. Argo, nodosa, 

 and Mans. 



Section II. — Decapoda. 



The animals possess ten arms, two of which are elon- 

 gated, cylindrical, and dilated at the ends ; these are called 

 tentacula ; they are all armed with suckers : those on the 

 dilated portions are occasionally like hooks or claws ; the 

 body has two fins. In the middle of the back is always 

 found an inner shell, which is either a horny pen or a 

 shelly bone. 



