92 RELATIONS WITH CTIIKH AN'IMAl-S. 



far as the eve of the lookout could I'l'iicli. .Mi-. N'rolik fouud iu 

 the stomach of a Ilyporoodou altoul leu thousand uuiudililcs of 

 .Loligo.* 



The oephalo]ioda are esseutially earuivorous; thoii' uourish- 

 meut is derived from fish, the migrations of which they follow, 

 and from l*teropod moUusca. Certain sedentary species eat 

 crustaceans, nndibranchiate mollusks and bryozoa. After their 

 exclusion, the young prey upon polyps, notably on those of the 

 family Gorgonidix?, so common on the Algerine coast, and of 

 which, some perhaps furnish the material necessary for the growtli 

 or solidification of the cuttle-bone. A little larger, they attack 

 with avidity those elegant chaplets of jx'arls. tlu' rainbow-hued 

 eggs of Eolis and Doris. f 



The chief article of food of the sperm whale is s([iii(l. of which 

 they vomit large quantities in their death agony. Ciipt. Pease 

 thinks that the whales take them by sAvimming with the mouth 

 so wide o})en that the lower jaw stands at nearly right angles 

 with tiie ui)per. Scpiid, he thinks, will grasp at the jaw as the 

 whale passes among them, and are cut in fragments by the sudden 

 closure of the jaws. He stoutly maintains that he has seen frag- 

 ments of sfpiid, where the whales h;)d cut them in two. ex]>osing 

 the cavity of the body, which was as large over as the iiead oi" 

 a forty-gallon cask. In one case he saw the head of a s(|nid 

 which he believes to linvc been as large as a sugai' hogshead. I 



It is the opinion of nlmosl :dl whalemen, that the sperm whnle 

 feeds wliolly on s(|iiid. rai)t. Daniel McKenzie, of New JJedford, 

 says: " The suialler kind they eat is found near the surface, and 

 is from -2 to :! feet iu Icuglh ; the larger kind, which prolt- 

 nlily li.-ivc Ihcir liauuts deep iu tlie sen. uiusl he of immense size. 

 1 have seen very large junks lloatiug on the surface entirely 

 shapeless." Capt. Francis Post says: "'Whales in the agony of 

 dt-ath. frefpiently eject from their stomach pieces as large as the 

 liidk of a barrel, and these in large quantities. Large pieces of 



*Harting, in ''Verh. K. Akad. Woteii.," Amsterdam, iv, 12, ISHl. 

 Trebius Xij^er si)eak.s of s(|iiids daitiiit;' into the air \n siujb iinnibers as td 

 sink the sliips ujkmi whicli tliey tall, l)y their weiylit. 



f Aucaijitaine, Rev. el Maff. Zool, 289, 18r.2. 



ISlialcr, Am. Naturalist, vii, '.\ 187:1 



