194 Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 



vanished. Feeling our utter inability to offer any alleviation to 

 their misery, we hastened to quit this scene of woe, and resumed our 

 voyage on the 39 th — Wrangell's Narrative of an Expedition to the 

 Polar Seas in the years 1820-1--2-.3. 8vo. Pp. 413. Madden & Co. 

 London 1840. 



16. The Flying Squid or Cuttle Fish (Lollgo Sp.) — Many different 

 kinds of Loligo are called by sailors Flying Squid, from a habit they 

 have of leaping from the water, and proceeding throngh the air to 

 some distance in a horizontal direction, like the flying fish. One 

 kind of Loligo, or Flying Squid, which we captured in the Pacific 

 Ocean, in Lat, 34° N., measured six inches in its entire length. 

 The upper surface of the body is grey, freckled with purple, the 

 under white ; iris silvery, pupil jet black and prominent. It has 

 eight arras and two tentacles. Each arm is furnished with a double 

 row of suckers on its entire length; and all, with exception of the 

 first or dorsal pair, have a loose membrane floating from their pos- 

 terior surface. The two tentacles are round, slender, and twice 

 the length of the arms, and have at their extremity a broad sickle- 

 shaped membrane, covered with two rows of yellow hooks of diffe- 

 rent sizes. 



This individual leaped from the sea over the high bulwarks of 

 the ship and alighted on the deck, at a time when vast flocks of the 

 same species were seen leaping around and often striking with vio- 

 lence against the bows of the vessel, the sea being comparatively 

 smooth. The creature was much injured by the violence with 

 which it had struck the deck, and shewed little animation ; it did 

 not attempt to leap or swim when put into a bucket of sea water, 

 though it emitted a quantity of inky fluid*' through a canal in the 

 body, opening by a large orifice immediately below the neck. The 

 prehensile power of the suckers on the arms was retained for a con- 

 siderable time after the death of the animal ; from which I should 

 judge that, like the buckler of the sucking fish, their function in a 

 great measure depends upon solely mechanical causes. 



A second species, which we also obtained in the Pacific, resem- 

 bled the above in size and form, but its two long tentacles, furnished 

 at their extremities with rows of suckers (acetabula), instead of 

 horny hooked appendages. The prevailing colours of this species 

 are silver- white and steel-blue, spread with red spots and tints of 

 violet and purple, a brilliant and very beautiful spot of emerald- 

 green being placed immediately above each eye. We noticed ex- 



* This secretion is contained in a narrow oblong bag, of silvery hue, and 

 placed isuaediately below the stomach.. 



