72 THE OCTOPUS, 



the trawlers off Brighton, and brought to the Aquarium in con- 

 siderable numbers. On the Sussex coast this species does not 

 appear to assemble in very large brigades, but rather in small 

 companies. No adult individuals have been received. They 

 are all " youths in their teens," not full-grown squids ; to which 

 they bear the same proportion in size as a drum-and-fife-band 

 of boys to a regiment of stalwart soldiers. The largest English 

 calamary I have seen, though larger specimens have been cast 

 ashore on the west coast of Ireland, is one which my friend 

 Dr. Bowerbank kindly sent to me, of a species comparatively 

 rarely found in British home-waters, — Ommastrephes sagittatiis. 

 Its dimensions were as follows : — 



Length from front of head to point of tail, 21^ inches. 

 Circumference of body, 14 inches. 

 Greatest breadth across tail-fins, 14 inches. 

 Length of each tentacular arm, 28 inches. 

 Length of spread from tip to tip of the two tentacular arms, 4 

 feet 10 inches. 



It was taken in the mackerel nets, and brought into Hastings 

 by one of the fishing boats on the 26th of September, 1873. 

 Unfortunately it had been much bruised and knocked about by 

 its captors. On endeavouring to extract the internal homy shell, 

 gladiits, or "pen," which Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys well describes as 

 resembling a very long oar with a broad handle, I found that it 

 had been sadly smashed and broken across into many pieces. 

 Fishermen often handle very roughly animals taken in their nets 

 which have no value as marketable food, and this splendid squid 

 had probably been dashed down on the deck of the boat with 

 great violence. A pretence of some pains having been taken to 

 keep it alive was, I am told, afterwards made. Although the 

 " sagittated calamary " is uncommon on our own shores, it visits 

 annually the coasts of Newfoundland in vast shoals, and is the 



