OMMASTEEPHES. 511 



Sepia loh'i/o, Lin. Syst. N;it. 12th ed. 1095. 



Sepia media, Baiibut. 



Lolup satjiltatn, var. /*, Lamarck. 



Calmar harper, Moxt. 



Loli<jo ilkrebrosa, Lesueur, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Pliila. ii. 95, plate (1821). — Gould, Inv. 



318 (1841). -De Kay, N. Y. Moll. 4 (1S43). 

 Loligo harpiKjo, Ferussao. 

 Loli(/'i Brorpiiarlii, Blainville. 

 Loligo piscatorum, La Pylaie. 

 Loli<jo Coimlefii, Verany. 



This species has l>eeii noticed at Gaspd (Dainsoii) ; Long Island 

 (Sanderson Sinif/i); Connecticut {Lins/c//}. The figure by Mr. 

 Burkhardt, which 1 liavc referred to it, represents a specimen taken 

 at Chelsea hy Professor Agassiz. 



Gould's and Lesueur's descriptions here follow : — 



This l)eautiful animal is occasionally seen on all parts of the shore 

 of Massachusetts. But it is especially abundant ai)out sandy shores, 

 as at Cape Cod. At Provincetown I have seen them stranded upon 

 the beach at low tide, in great multitudes. Their usual mode of 

 swimming is by dilating their sac-shaped body and filling it with 

 water. The body is then suddenly contracted and the water forci- 

 bly ejected, so as to propel them backwards with great rapidity. 

 So swift and straight is their progress that they look like arrows 

 shooting through the water. Whenever they strike the shore they 

 commence pumping the water with increased violence, while every 

 effort only tends to throw them still further upon the sand, until 

 they are left high and dry. The body is beautifully spotted with 

 colors, which seem to vary with the emotions of the animal. At one 

 moment they are a vivid red, at the next a deep blue, violet, brown, 

 or orange. They devour immense numbers of small fish, and it is 

 amusing to watch their movements and see how, at a distance of 

 several feet, they will poise themselves, and in an instant, with the 

 rapidity of lightning, the prey is seized in their long arms and in- 

 stantaneously swallowed. They, in their turn, are devoured l)y the 

 larger fishes, and are extensively used for bait in the cod-fishery. 



They have a single bone, if it may l)e so called, running the whole 

 length of the body. It is composed of a flexilde, elastic substance 

 resembling mica, and, in this species, its form is like the double 

 paddle of the Greenlander, only it is very slender. ( Gou/d.^ 



Lo/iffo lUccebrosa. The body of this species is rather short, nar- 

 row, sub-equal anteriorly, terminated acutely posteriorly; fins ap- 

 proximated at their origin, terminated in a point, and taken together 

 rhombiform ; the two longer arms are narrow, dilated at their ex- 



