CUTTLES AND SQUIDS, 79; 



the bringing of the orifice of the syphon tube above the surface, 

 and the removal of the resistance to the out-pouring current, 

 which, when ejected under water, would, in the one case, have 

 been a means of locomotion, and, in the other, of concealment of 

 their whereabouts. Some have supposed that the emission is 

 involuntary, and is produced much in the same way as the water 

 is tossed up in spray by the screw of a steam-vessel when her 

 stem rises whilst she is pitching heavily in a rough sea. Others, 

 who have experienced the effect of this habit of the animals, have 

 persistently asserted that they take deliberate aim, with the motive 

 of aggression or self-defence. 



Mr. Danvin, in his narrative of the " Voyage of the Beagle," 

 says that v/hilst looking for marine animals, with his head about 

 two feet above the rocky shore, he was more than once saluted by 

 a jet of water accompanied by a slight grating noise. At first he 

 could not think what it was ; but he afterwards found that it was 

 an octopus, which, though concealed in a hole, thus led him to its 

 discovery; and it appeared to him that it could certainly take 

 good aim, by directing the tube or syphon on the under side of 

 its body. 



The force with which the water is expelled is often very great. 

 Some of the LoligincB are capable of propelling themselves with 

 such momentum by a vigorous out-rush from the tube, that when 

 this pressure is so exerted as to cause them to take an upward 

 direction, they leap out of water to such a height as to fall on to 

 the decks of vessels, and are called by sailors "flying squids." 

 Desiring to preserve some specimens of the "little squid" [Loligo 

 media), if possible with their colours unchanged, I put two alive 

 into a bottleful of spirits of wine as the best method of causing 

 their instantaneous death. Both of them immediately " squirted " 

 with such effect that a third part of the spirits of wine was thrown 

 out of the bottle and spilled on the table. 



I have no doubt at all that the cephalopods intentionally and 

 deliberately take aim, and that they are able to do so as accu- 



