Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/110

Rh which they are then thrown forward, discharging and dropping the burden, impress the mind with admiration of the beautiful fitness of the organization for the requirement.

This use of the funnel, and of the sucking arms, so different from their normal purposes, affords additional examples of that Divine economy in creation, which, when a new function is ordained, does not always form new and special organs for the necessity, but adapts some already employed in other service for the new work; while, still, both the one and the other function are fulfilled with such perfection, as shows that every emergency was foreseen and provided for in the mighty plan, and that it was not for want of resources that distinct actions are performed by the same instrumentality. We admire the skill of the artizan who can effect different operations with the same tool, especially when we see that each kind of work is of faultless excellence.

The ordinary employment of the sucking arms is no doubt the same as in other Cephalopoda, the capture and retention of prey. Of this I saw an instance in the case of one of my Sepiolæ which had seized a shrimp (Crangon trispinosus), a sand-burrower like itself, and was, when I saw it, holding it firmly against the horny jaws, which were devouring it. The discharge of ink through the funnel I have also witnessed, though this is far from being a frequent action with this species. One of them that had been for a day or two in an Aquarium, and was evidently at home there, I put into another vessel. No other animal was present, but the strangeness of the new abode