Chap. 46.] 
THE POLYPUS. 
417 
CHAP. 45. (29.) THE S-a:PIA, THE LOLIGO, THE SCALLOP. 
The loligo is also able to dart above tbe surface of the water, 
and the scallop does the same, just like an arrow as it were. 
In the ssepia,^^ the male is parti-coloured, blacker than the 
female, and more courageous. If the female is struck with a 
fish-spear, the male comes to her aid ; but the female, the in- 
stant the male is struck, takes to flight. Both of them, as 
60011 as ever they find themselves in danger of being caught, 
discharge'^* a kind of ink, which with them is in place of 
blood, 2^ and thus darkening the water, take to flight. 
CHAP. 46. THE POLYPUS. 
There are numerous kinds of polj^i. The land^^ polypus is 
larger than that of the sea ; they all of them use their arms^''^ as 
feet and hands ; and in coupling they employ the tail, which is 
forked'^^ and sharp. The polypus has a sort of passage in the 
back,^^ by which it lets in and discharges the water, and which 
TTOuld be " quibus natant " — " by means of wbich they swim for Aristotle 
says, in the corresponding passage, with the fins that surround the body 
they swim." 
23 Plautus has a line in his Rudens, which shows that when the saepia 
was cooked for table, it was customary to take the eyes out. " Bid them 
knock out his eyes, just as the cooks do with the saepia." 
2* Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, states to a similar effect, as also 
^lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 34 ; Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 156. 
25 This so-called ink, Cuvier says, is neither their blood nor their bile, 
but a liquid that is secreted in a bag peculiar to the animal. It is said, 
that it is from the juices of certain polypi of the Eastern seas, that the 
genuine Indian or Chinese ink is made ; but M. Abel Remusat assures us 
that he has found nothing in the Chinese writers to confirm this conjecture. 
26 This, as Hardouin says, is the polypus which is found on the sea- 
shore, and which more frequently comes on dry land than the other kinds. 
27 The arms of the polypus have numerous names with the Latin authors. 
Ovid calls them "flagella," — "whips;" others again, "cirri" — "curls;" 
" pedes " — " feet " crura — " legs and " crines — " hair." 
28 This, Cuvier says, is quite unintelligible ; for all the polypi have an 
oval body, of the shape of a bag, and there is nothing in them that bears 
any resemblance to a tail, forked or otherwise. 
29 This channel, Cuvier says, is in form of a funnel reversed, by means 
of which the animal draws in and ejects the water that is requisite for its 
respiration, and discharges the ink and other excretions. It is in the fore- 
part of the body, and at tbe orifice of the bag, and not on the back, as 
Pliny says ; but, as Cuvier remarks, it was very easy for a person to be 
deceived in this matter, as the head, being in form of a cylinder, and 
VOL. II, E B 
