CEPHALOPODS. 
467 
The cuttle-fish affects the sea shore ; they are along-shore molluscs, 
ue flattened form of their bodies is favourable to a coasting life, by 
permitting them to rest easily on the bottom. Still they do not 
re tttain a U the year round upon the coast. The cold in temperate 
Regions, and the opposite reason in warm regions, leads them to with- 
draw from the shore, to which they only return in the spring. They 
ai 'e rarely seen in the Channel in winter, but with the vernal sun 
| fl ey appear in large shoals. What is the mechanism by which 
tl *es e animals are moved? When the cuttle-fish wishes to swim 
j'apidly a nd backwards, they advance hi the water by means of the 
°comotive tube, sending back the ambient liquid. When they wish 
° a PFoach a prey slowly in order to seize it, they swim by the aid 
?, ^eir fins and arms. In order to swim backwards, they contract 
le arms provided with tentacles, and spread out horizontally the 
arms without tentacles. 
The cuttles are flesh-eaters, and tolerably voracious. They feed 
heniselves upon fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans. They are true 
aquatic brigands, who kill not to feed themselves, but for the sake of 
dling ; and Nature, by a just equilibrium, applies to them the lex 
Zinnia. They fall victims, hi their turn, to the vengeful jaws of the 
P°rpoises and dolphins. Such is the terrible harmony of Nature : 
s °uie must die that others may live. Michelet gives us a glimpse 
fte manner in which the dolphins dispose of the cuttle-fish, in liis 
Tivre de la Mer.” “ These lords of the ocean,” he says, “ aro so 
Plicate in their tastes that they eat only the head and arms, which 
are both tender and of easy digestion. They reject the hard parts, 
ai f! especially the after-part of the body. The coast at Rcyan, for 
x ample , ig eovere q with thousands of these mutilated cuttle-fish. 
porpoises take most incredible bounds, at first to frighten them, 
ff 1 afterwards to run them down ; in short, after their feast, they 
b Ve themselves up to gymnastics.” 
the spring the cuttle-fishes deposit their eggs, but without 
c fa® cloning them. On the contrary, they exhibit a truly maternal 
^ faking much trouble to attach them to some submarine body, 
^bich position the temperature of the water serves to hatch the 
Sepia officinalis, for example, chooses, at the moment of laying, 
I f em of Fucus, a foot of Gorgonia, or some other solid submarine 
u y not less in dimensions than the little finger, and there it firmly 
2 h 2 
