420 Dr. Bancroft on Jamaican Fishes, &c. 
receiving it from the neighbourhsod of Old Harbour where it was caught; 
but [ shall endeavour to get a perfect specimen, and in the mean time I 
trust this individual will be thought worth having, for it seems to sur- 
pass the * taille gigantesque’’ of the specimen mentioned by Lamarck in 
the Paris Museum, its extreme length (in its present shrivelled state) 
froth the tip of the pedunculated arms to that of the tail being 28 inches ; 
and its mouth, at least, affording a fine example of the parrot-beak of the 
Sepiaria. I hope that, if either Mr. Broderip or Mr. G. B. Sowerby 
will take this Loligo in charge, he will pardon my liberty in begging 
him to have the patience to look well at the cotyledons on the different 
arms, at their alternating positions, and at the varying forms of the den- 
tated rings within them; for, although the rings are more or less set 
with teeth, either all round or on two opposite sides, yet those on one 
side are often very different from those on the other, three or five being 
frequently much larger than the opposite or the intermediate ones, and 
differing besides by their shapes, directions, and inclinations, each diversity 
nevertheless being evidently the best adapted for the action of its cotyle- 
don in its respective situation. I nowhere find any mention of these 
peculiarities of structure, minutiz of this sort, however admirable for 
their contrivance, having been unaccountably overlooked or contemmed. 
I suspect that the greatest possible differences would, on investigation, 
be found to exist among the Sepiaria partly as to the form of their 
cotyledons, and partly as to the structure and action of their cartilaginous 
rings. But whither am I going, and to whom do I presume to suggest 
enquiries ? 
Another Molluscum is also sent in the cask, an Aplysia: but * quan- 
** tum mutatus ab illo,”? as I saw it for a very short time before it died. 
Death produces a woeful alteration in the appearance of this tribe of 
animals; for the body and members are all so shrunk up, especially 
when preserved in spirits, that no one can form any just notion of the 
real structure or habits of the individual, from the mere inspection of a 
specimen in this state. Every little seeming wart or papilla now on its 
and fig. 5, of pl. lof Mollusques represents Loligo Brongniartii, which has some 
likeness to that I send. 
