31 S Dr Grant o» the Structure arid Characters of 



rather soft, and light coloured. The head is broad, short, covered 

 with spots and minute granules on the back part like the body, 

 white on the fore part with few spots. It expands without any pre- 

 vious contraction into eight strong arms, like an inverted cone. Pen- 

 nant has represented a slight contraction of the head between the 

 eyes and the arms. The eyes are very small, almost concealed un- 

 der the folds of the skin forming the longitudinal eyelids, and they 

 are placed rather towards the back than the sides of the head. 

 The iris is white, has a shining silvery lustre, and is almost co- 

 vered with small round spots of a deep reddish brown colour like 

 those of the skin. The eight arms have all the same length, form 

 and structure, but the two interior are much whiter than the others. 

 The arms are about three times the length of the body, much com- 

 pressed throughout their whole length, very strong at their base, 

 and tapering regularly to almost imperceptible filaments at their free 

 ends. They are deeply spotted externally, nearly white on their 

 central aspect, and are armed with a single range of suckers on 

 their inner surface, extending from their base to their extreme points. 

 The bases of the arms are connected to each other, by a strong mus- 

 cular web spotted externally, and white within, like the arms, and 

 extending between the arms to about the twelfth sucker from the 

 mouth. The suckers commence about half an inch from the fringed 

 lip of the mouth ; they are sessile, broad, and very short. The suck- 

 ers next the mouth are nearly a line in breadth, they increase regu- 

 larly in size to the sixth from the base which is the largest on all 

 the arms, and measures nearly three quarters of an inch in diame- 

 ter. From the sixth sucker they again diminish regularly in size, 

 till they become quite invisible to the naked eye near the points of 

 the arms. With a lens they may be counted to within half a line 

 from the points, and about 111 are found on each arm, making SSS 

 on the animal. The first four suckers from the base, are about two 

 lines distant from each other, the rest are placed in close contact. 

 In the 0. vulgaris the first three or four suckers from the mouth are 

 likewise placed in a single row, and a little distant from each other, 

 but from these to the points of the arms there is a double range ; in 

 that species there are about 240 on each arm, making in all 1920. 

 In the 0. granulatus, Cuvier states that there are 1 80 suckers (90 pairs> 

 on each arm, making 1440 suckers on that species. It might be use- 

 ful to observe this external character in all the species. Each suck- 

 er of the ventricosus consists of a central cartilaginous hemispheri- 

 cal cup, surrounded by a very broad flat muscular margin, which is 

 deeply marked like the inner edge of the cup, with from fifteen to 

 seventeen distinct radiating grooves. Cuvier has made no mention 

 of these thick white, firm cartilaginous cups, in describing the suck- 

 ers of the 0. vulgaris. They can be taken out entire with great ease 

 from the centre of the suckers, particularly after immersing them in 

 boiling water. There is no horny circle nor sharp converging teeth 

 within these cups, as we find in the pedunculated suckers of the 

 Sepia and Loligo. 



The external dimensions of the adult animal are — from the upper 

 margin of the mantle to the lower end of the body 4 J inches; great- 

 est breadth of the body from right to left 3^ inches ; length of the 



