8 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 
common form, and the one that is almost alone 
met with, is the squid or calamary,—the Loligo 
Pealii of naturalists,—an animal measuring some 
9 inches in the length of its body, or 18 inches 
including the length of 
its longest arms. None 
of the fabulous mon- 
sters that have wrung 
from the poet and the 
novelist their mythi- 
cal conceptions of the 
‘devil-fish, or any- 
thing that at all ap- 
proaches in ~~ dimen- 
sions the famous 20- 
foot specimen for- 
merly preserved in the 
New York Aquarium, 
has ever been noted 
from this part of the 
Atlantic coast. But 
whether large or small 
our animal is alike in- 
ee teresting. The beauti- 
ful tints of the body, which, chameleon-like, vary 
as different patches of pigment-particles are ex- 
posed to the surface, cannot fail to elicit admiration, 
even though the general appearance of the creature 
prove at first a trifle repulsive. There are, however, a 
number of interesting points about this animal which 
stamp it at once as being no ordinary specimen. 
In the first place, a cuttle-fish, of whatever form 
