W. MOLLUSKS. 



205. THE CUTTLES CEPHALOPODA. 



The mollusks called " Cuttles" or " Cuttle-fishes" bear a very important relation to the fisheries 

 and consequently to the food supply of the United States. It has recently been ascertained that 

 some of these Cuttle-fishes attain huge bulk and corresponding abilities for destruction. The two 

 species of Arcliiteuthis (A. princeps and A. llarveyi), roaming through the North Atlantic and now 

 and then -stranded upon the beaches of Newfoundland, have each a total length of from thirty to 

 fifty feet, and a weight of solid flesh amounting to thousands of pounds. 



"The Cuttles," says Dr. Philip Carpenter, "have very acute senses. They have an approach 

 to a brain, inclosed in a cartilaginous skull. They can hear sounds, and evidently enjoy the taste 

 of their food. They have a large, fleshy tongue, armed with recurved prickles, like that of the lion. 

 They either crawl on their head tail upwards, or swim, tail foremost, by striking with their arms, 

 or squirt themselves backwards by forcing water forward through their breathing funnels. 



" They are ferocious creatures, the tyrants of the lower orders, and do not scruple to attack 

 and devour even fishes. The larger kinds are deservedly dreaded by man. Their weapons con- 

 sist in their powerful arms, which are abundantly furnished with rows of cup-like suckers, each 

 of which fastens on its prey or its foe like a limpet to the rock. Often these are accompanied with 

 sharp-curved teeth, strong enough to be preserved even in fossil species." 



The giant Cuttle-fishes of the north (Architeuthis) and the commoner Squids and Calamaries of 

 our Atlantic coast belong to the ten-armed division of the order termed Decapods. The three 

 smaller species ordinarily met with are Loligo Pealei, Loligo Pealei var. pallida, and Ommastrephes 

 illecebrosus. On the extreme southern coast they are replaced by an Octopod (Octopus granulatus). 



Of these four, Loligo Pealei is the common Squid of Long Island Sound and southward, and 

 when full grown it is more than a foot in length. The color when living is very changeable, owing 

 to the alternate contractions of the color-vesicles or spots, but red and brown predominate, so as 

 to give a general purplish-brown color. An allied variety or subspecies, named pallida, is a 

 "pale, translucent, gelatinous-looking" creature, with few spots on the back and nearly white 

 beneath. Commonly five or six inches long, exclusive of the arms, it frequently grows much larger, 

 and is of broader and stouter proportions than the type-form, from which it is further distin- 

 guished by its broader caudal fin and the larger size of its suckers. It belongs especially to the 

 western end of Long Island Sound, " where it is abundant with the schools of menhaden, on which 

 it feeds." 



"This species," writes Verrill, 1 "is found along the whole coast from South Carolina to Massa- 

 v chusetts Bay. 



" It is the Common Squid from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod. In Long Island Sound and Vineyard 

 Sound it is very abundant, and is taken in large numbers in the fish-pounds and seines, and used 

 to a large extent for bait. It is comparatively scarce, though not rare, north of Cape Cod. The 

 young were trawled by us in many localities in Massachusetts Bay in 1878. Large specimens were 

 taken in the pounds at Provincetown, Massachusetts, August, 1879. It was taken in considerable 



1 Report U. S. Fish Commission, part rii, 1882, p. 355. 



