8. The term of Loligo's life is unknown, but it 

 is probably not more than five years. 



9. General habits and methods of feeding, swim- 

 ming, etc., are described and discussed. 



II 



Contrary to the customary experience of others, 

 my own initial contact with Loligo came about not 

 in the open sea or the wide watery reach of the 

 Sound or in any other expansive arm of the neigh- 

 boring Atlantic. The acquaintance began at my 

 very door, so to speak, within the restricted con- 

 fines of one of those innumerable watercourses 

 which during the recession of every tide thread the 

 salt marshlands immediately adjacent to the prem- 

 ises of my laboratory-studio home. 



At the time whereof I write, I had, it is true, what 

 may be called a not inconsiderable book-acquaint- 

 ance with the squid, as well as with the greater 

 majority of forms which commonly frequent the 

 local shores; but my actual meetings had been few. 

 I was, in a way of speaking, a new-comer to the 

 neighborhood of the sea: it had been but a short 

 time before this period that a long-looked-for lei- 

 sure and opportunity came, wherein it was at last 



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