442 KEPOirr^^COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



sometimes repeated a dozen times before one of these active and wary 

 fishes could be caught. Sometimes after making several unsuccessful 

 attempts one of the squids would suddenly drop to the bottom, and, 

 resting upon the sand, would change its color to that of the sand so 

 perfectly as to be almost invisible. In this way it would wait until the 

 fishes came back, and when they were swimming close to or over the 

 ambuscade, the squid, by a sudden dart, would be pretty sure to secure 

 a fish. Ordinarily when swimming they were thickly spotted with 

 red and brown, but when darting among the mackerel they appeared 

 translucent and pale. The mackerel, however, seemed to have learned 

 that the shallow water is the safest for them and would hug the shore as 

 closely as possible, so that in pursuing them many of the squids became 

 stranded and perished by hundreds, for when they once touch the shore 

 they begin to pump water from their siphons with great energy, and this 

 usuall}^ forces them farther and farther up the beach. At such times 

 they often discharge their ink in large (luantities. The attacks on 

 the young mackerel were observed mostly at or near high-water, for 

 at other times the mackerel Avere seldom seen, though the squids were 

 seen swimming- about at all hours ; and these attacks were observed 

 both in the day and evening. But it is probable, from various observa- 

 tions, that this and the other species of squids are partially nocturnal 

 in their habits, or at least are more active in the night than in the day. 

 Those that are caught in the pounds and weirs mostly enter in the 

 night, and evidently when swimming along the shores in " schools." 

 They are often found in the morning stranded on the beaches in im- 

 mense numbers, especially when there is a full moon, and it is thought 

 by many of the fishermen that this is because, like many other noc- 

 turnal animals, they have the habit of turning tow^ard and gazing at a 

 bright light, and since they swim backwards they get ashore on the 

 beaches opposite the position of the moon. This habit is also some- 

 times taken advantage of by the fishermen who captnre them for bait 

 for cod-fish; they go out in dark nights with torches in their boats and 

 by advancing slowly toward a beach drive them ashore. They are also 

 sometimes taken on lines, adhering to the bait used for fishes. 



The specimens observed catching young mackerel were mostly eight 

 or ten inches long, and some of them were still larger. The length of 

 time required for these squids to become full grown is unknown, as well 

 as the duration of their lives, but as several distinct sizes were taken in 

 the pounds, and those of each school were of about the same size, it is 

 probable that they ar« several years in attaining their full size. A 

 specimen, recently caught at Eastport, Maine, was pale bluish white, 

 with green, blue, and yellow iridescence on the sides and lower surface; 

 the whole body was more or less thickly covered with small, unequal, circu- 

 lar, orange-brown and dark brown spots, having creuulate margins ; these 

 spots are continually changing in size from mere points, when they are 

 nearly black, to spots 0.04 to 0.00 of an inch in diameter, when they are 



