ti rare species of Octopus Jrom the Firth of Forth. 815 



size and vTermilion to pass with great ease both through the vein and 

 the artery. I have often found the vein burst in the L. sagittaia in 

 forcing the same injection through that vessel, in a direction con- 

 trary to the natural course of the blood. The central heart has very 

 thin white firm walls, slightly marked internally with columns car- 

 neae ; and its capacity is more than three times that of each lateral 

 heart. The distribution of the arteries and veins, as might be ex- 

 pected, was similar to that of the vulgaris^ so far as I could trace them. 

 The white fringed lip surrounding the two bills is rather short; 

 the bills, of a deep brown colour, are likewise short and powerful ; 

 the lower one is much expanded at its base. The tongue is cover- 

 ed with an amber-coloured hard, horny, membrane, which has 

 several longitudinal rows of sharp reflected teeth. The upper pair 

 of salivary glands are round, flat, deeply lobed on the margins, of 

 a white colour, bound to the fleshy sides of the mouth, and they 

 send their ducts through these fleshy parietes into th€ mouth. By 

 remaining some weeks in spirits, these glands acquired a purple 

 colour, while the lower pair, equally exposed, were not affected. 

 The lower pair of salivary glands are of a pale-red colour, about 

 an inch long, and three quarters of an inch broad, compressed, 

 smooth, not lobed like those of the vulgaris, firm in texture, some- 

 what triangular'or heart-shaped, and they areloosely suspended behind 

 the upper margin of the liver, by means of their vessels, nerves, and 

 ducts. On cutting open these large compact glands, we find a small 

 cavity, like the pelvis of a kidney, at their upper part, from which 

 the ducts commence. They are about ten times as large as the 

 upper pair. Their two ducts unite into one, which passes up on 

 the fore part of the oesophagus for nearly two inches, to enter the 

 mouth at the root of the tongue. When the oesophagus reaches the 

 upper and back part of the liver, it becomes firmly connected to 

 that organ, and expands into a wide membranous crop, deeply 

 marked internally with longitudinal folds, and covered with a vil- 

 lous appearance. The part of the crop which is most intimately 

 connected with the substance of the liver is drawn upwards in the 

 form of a coecum, and has a glandular texture. The crop tapers 

 as it descends obliquely to the gizzard. This membranous crop is 

 not present in the Loligo sagittata, where the oesophagus passes 

 without dilatation to the stomach, at the bottom of the liver, next to 

 the spinal sac. The muscular sides of the gizzard are of great thick- 

 ness, and as strong in proportion as those of a domestic fowl. Its 

 two fleshy sides are placed nearer the upper than the lower end ; the 

 under end is thin and membranous. The hard cartilaginous lining 

 of the gizzard T found quite detached from the sides ; and, on exa- 

 mining its contents carefully in a watch-glass, I collected some un- 

 digested muscular parts of a pale-red colour, fragments of the crus- 

 taceous covering and joints of young crabs, and some coarse parti- 

 cles of sand. 1 have no doubt, from the appearance of these parts 

 through the microscope, that the particles of sand aided in the commi- 

 nution of the hard shells. In the L, sagittata there is only a thin, wide^ 

 membranous stomach in the place of this thick fleshy gizzard. The 

 upper and left side of the gizzard opens into the spiral stomach, which 

 has nothing peculiar. The large intestine, on leaving the spiral 



