NOTE ON A CALIFORNIAN LOLIGO. 
BY HENRY HEMPHILL. 
In the July (1891) number of the Nautilus, in an article under the 
heading ‘‘ Edible Shell Notes,’ Mr. R. E. C. Stearns mentions a 
‘‘Ten-armed Cephalopod” which he had seen offered as an article 
of food in the San Francisco markets. Recently, while passing 
through the San Francisco and Oakland markets, I found a form of 
a loligo lying on the stalls of the fish dealers, which they offered at 
twenty-five cents per pound, and which I think is the ‘‘ Ten-armed 
Cephalopod” referred to by Mr. Stearns. Dr. Cooper informs me 
he had observed a shoal of loligo at Monterey, some years ago, 
but having no net he was unable to secure a specimen. These that 
we find here in the markets now are said, by the fish dealers, to be 
taken in nets outside the Heads by the Chinese fishermen. 
The body and arms of my largest specimen measures about ten 
‘inches, the two longest arms being about three inches longer. 
The arms are not webbed, but each of the eight short ones have two. 
rows of suckers their entire length, while the two other arms havea 
small patch of small suckers towards their tips. It took nine indi- 
viduals of those I purchased from the fish dealer to weigh a pound, 
so we may say they weigh about two ounces each. In cleaning for 
cooking they will lose about half their weight, and each one will then 
furnish about one ounce of flesh. 
In preparing them for cooking, after having removed the outer 
skin, pen, head, arms and entrails, they should be carefully washed, 
and fried in plenty of hot butter or fat, and seasoned to the taste. 
Those which I had prepared and cooked were a little tough, 
though quite palatable, being nicely flavored, but they never will 
take the place of the delicious oysters and clams that have inspired 
poets to sing their praises. ; 
In the form of its body and the coloring, as well as in the form of 
the pen, it closely resembles Loligo Gaht D’ Orbigny, but as T have 
no other material with which to compare it, and no description of 
that form, I cannot say definitely whether it is that species or not. 
This form makes an interessing addition to our west coast Cepha- 
lopods, and if upon further study I should conclude it to be new I 
_ propose to call it Lodige Stearnsit. 
