166 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



been found at Hayti, Cuba, Bahia, the Isle of France, 

 the East Indies, and in the Red Sea. . . . This Ce- 

 phalopod lives almost always amongst rocks, and 

 generally hides itself in the holes and crevices, into 

 which it penetrates with great ease, its body being 

 very supple and elastic. It is in these recesses that 

 he lies watching for the animals on which he lives; as 

 soon as he perceives them, he cautiously leaves his 

 den, darts like an arrow on his victim, which he wraps 

 himself about, clasps in his serpent-like arms, and fixes, 

 by means of his suckers. . . . Sometimes he places him- 

 self upon sandy ground at a short distance from the 

 rocks, and is careful to construct a hiding-place. For 

 this purpose he brings together, in the form of a circle, 

 a quantity of pebbles, which he carries by fixing them 

 on his arms by means of his suckers. Then, having 

 formed a sort of crater, he ensconces himself in it, 

 and there waits patiently for some fish or crab to 

 pass, which he skilfully seizes." " The young Poulps 

 in summer come to the pebbly shores, and they are 

 sometimes met with in muddy places, from which 

 they are taken by the trawl, together with numbers of 

 Eledon (Eledone cirrhosus). They are usually fished 

 for with a line without a hook, instead of which is sub- 

 stituted a piece of dog-fish, a bit of cuttle-fish, a white 

 fish, a bone, a piece of suet, or some attractive sub- 

 stance weighted with a small stone. . . . They are also 

 caught with a small olive-branch, fixed at the end of a 

 rod, fitted with a hook, which is drawn backwards and 

 forwards before the openings of the holes and crevices 

 of the rocks." 



M. Verany further states that the fishermen catch the 

 large ones with the leister, or trident, and in summer the 



