114 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



belongs to a different family) by its perforated eyelid as well as by its shorter fins. 

 It has long been known that this beautiful animal is very abundant from Massa- 

 chusetts Bay northward to the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, and my own 

 observations lead me to believe that its numbers increase from southwest to north- 

 east around the coasts of the Gulf of Maine. However, though its economic value 

 has been fully appreciated by fishermen for over a century, and while it has often 

 been referred to in scientific literature, practically nothing is known of its life 

 history. 



Illex appears along the shores of the gulf in late spring or early summer (I have 

 been unable to find any record of the exact date of its vernal arrival) , is found very 

 plentifully there throughout the summer and early autumn, and vanishes from the 

 coast some time in October or November. According to reports by fishermen it 

 is present offshore in winter, though not to be found in the coastal zone at that season, 

 a phenomenon to which I shall have occasion to recur. During its season Illex 

 occurs even more abundantly than does Loligo farther south, the vast schools 

 in which it visits the coast having been described long ago by Verrill. Owing to a 

 habit of stranding, the presence of this squid is very evident, as it oftens comes 

 ashore in large numbers on the beaches from Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy. On 

 the islands near the mouth of the latter, in particular, I have found them, as did 

 Verrill, in windrows on the flats in August and September, stranded squids being a 

 familiar sight there to everyone. At low tide shoals of squid may often be seen 

 darting to and fro over the sand or struggling in the shallows. For some inscrutable 

 reason the squid, once aground, seems forced by instinct to drive farther and farther 

 ashore — throw it out ever so often into deeper water, and it shoots, arrowlike, back on 

 the beach, to perish there as the tide ebbs. This fatal habit causes the destruction 

 of multitudes of squid, as long ago recounted by Verrill and by Smith and Harger 

 (in Verrill, 1882, p. 307), who tell us that when in pursuit of young mackerel many of 

 the "squids became stranded and perished by hundreds, for when they once touch 

 the shore they begin to pump water from their siphons with great energy, and this 

 usually forces them farther and farther up the beach." " It is probable, from various 

 observations," says Verrill (1882, p. 307), "that this and other species of squids are 

 mainly nocturnal in their habits, or at least are much more active in the night than 

 in the day." Certainly it is at night that they most often enter the weirs and pounds. 

 During the dark hours in summer and autumn the presence of shoals of squid is often 

 disclosed by their phosphorescent wakes, Hjort (1912, p. 649) describing the common 

 Norwegian squid, of the genus Ommastrephes, as "moving in the surface waters like 

 luminous bubbles, resembling large milky white electric lamps being constantly lit 

 and extinguished." The Gulf of Maine Illex, however, is often seen swimming near 

 the surface during the daytime as well. 



Whenever and wherever found, these squids are extremely voracious, and the 

 schools that run ashore often do so in pursuit of fish fry. At the mouth of the Bay of 

 Fundy, both in summer and in early autumn, I have seen them eagerly following the 

 schools of young herring, which in their turn are feeding upon shrimps (euphausiids) , 

 often so common in the surface waters there (p. 135). I can corroborate Verrill's 

 observation that squid stomachs are then often distended, both with shrimp and 



