There are various short and incomplete accounts of the capture of prey by Sepia scattered throughout the literature (Grimpe, 1928; Hertling, 1929; Holmes, 1940, are all typical and fairly recent), but I have not found any really satisfactory figures. Those I have seen are little better than rough sketches (Grimpe, 1928, p. 372; Naef, 1923, text-fig. 304b; Tompsett, 1939, plate i, fig. 2) and there do not appear to be any photographs at all. A few observations, and some photographs I have taken recently should therefore be of interest, especially as the photographs reveal some points that do not appear to have attracted attention previously. The final stages of the capture take place so rapidly that the eye fails to observe the details, whereas photographs can be studied at leisure afterwards.

The specimen of Sepia that forms the subject of these pictures was of medium size with a shell about 12 cm. long. It had been living in a tank, with others of about the same size, for several months, during which time it had been fed on living prawns. It was photographed in mid-November when the water temperature was 12.5° C. (in a later paper I shall show that below about II° C. Sepia often ceases to feed). The photographs were taken by flashlight on two evenings between 7 and 8.30 p.m., the tank being lit, for viewing purposes, by a 100 W. bulb in a reflector above one end (the left side in the pictures). Each photograph was taken at sec. with one Baby Sashalite bulb and a synchronizer of my own design, the shutter being released electrically.