File:The book of shells - containing the classes Mollusca, Conchifera, Cirrhipeda, Annulata, and Crustacea (1837) (20405865471).jpg

Title: The book of shells : containing the classes Mollusca, Conchifera, Cirrhipeda, Annulata, and Crustacea
Identifier: bookofshellscont00lama (find matches)
Year: 1837 (1830s)
Authors: Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de, 1744-1829; Dall, William Healey, 1845-1927, former owner. DSI; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Great Britain). Committee of General Literature and Education
Subjects: Mollusks; Shells
Publisher: London : John W. Parker
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Description: BEAK OF A CEPHALOPOD

Text Appearing Before Image:
some authors, there can be no doubt that it attains a very considerable magnitude. When attacked in its own element, it has been known, even in the seas of temperate latitudes, capable of overcoming a powerful mastiff. The jaws of all this tribe are, likewise, extremely

Text Appearing After Image:
strong, formed like the beak of a parrot, and very hard. In addition to these means of defence, it possesses within its body a bladder, containing an inky-coloured fluid, which it has the power of throwing out at will, and, by thus discolouring the water, it escapes the pursuit of its enemies. This inky liquid, when dried, forms a very valuable colour, used by artists, and called, after the animal, Sepia. The eggs of the female are of an oval form, and joined to each other in clusters. They are of the size of filberts, of a black colour, and commonly known by the name of Sea Grapes. They are found attached to sea-weed, rocks, and other marine substances.
The Cuttle Fish generally remains with its body in some hole in a rock, while its arms are extended in every direction, to seize the wanderer that may chance to pass its place of ambush. Its appetite is voracious, and it seizes as its prey every living thing that it has the power to conquer.
The species figured in the engraving is very common on the English coasts, and the bone which is enclosed in its body is frequently found on the sands ; it is a well-known substance, and much employed in the manufacture of tooth-powder. This bone, which, with the exception of the jaws, is the only solid part in the Sepia,

Note About Images