12 AMERICAN MARINE CONCIIOLOGY. 



1. 0. SAGITTATUS, Lamai'ck. Fig. T. 



{Loligo.) Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat., Paris, xiii. 1799. 

 LoUgo illecebrosa, Lcsueur, Journ. Philad. Acad., ii. 9."), plate. 1821. 

 Loligo harpago, Ferussac, Diet. Class. Hist. Nat., iii. 67. 1833. 

 Loligo Brongniartii, Blainv., Diet. Se. Nat., xxvii. 143. 1823. 

 Loligo piscato rum, La Pylaie, Ana. Sc. Nat., iv. 319. 1835. 

 Loligo Coindetii, Verany, Mem. Acad. Se. Torino, t. 1, f. 4. 1837. 



Head large. Body elongate, cylindrical, opaque, fleshy, smooth 

 above and below. Tentacular arms with eight rows of numerous 

 small cups at the extremities. Shell narrow, elongate ; lateral 

 ribs largest ; apical cone large. 



This beautiful animal is occasionally seen on all parts of the 

 shore of Massachusetts. But it is especially abundant about 

 sandy shores, as at Cape Cod. At Provincetown I have seen them 

 stranded upon the beach at low tide, in great multitudes. Their 

 usual mode of swimming is by dilating their sack-shaped body 

 and filling it witli water. The bod}' is then suddenly contracted 

 and the w^ater forcibly ejected, so as to propel tliem backwards 

 with great rapidity. So swift and straight is their progress that 

 they look like arrows shooting througli the water. Whenever 

 they strike the shore they commence pumping the water with in- 

 ci'eased violence, while every effort only tends to throw them still 

 further upon the sand, until they are left high and dry. The body 

 is beautifully spotted with colors, w-hich seem to vary with the 

 emotions of the animal. At one moment they are a vivid red, at 

 the next a deep blue, A'iolet, brown, or orange. They devour im- 

 mense numbers of small fish, and it is amusing to watch their 

 movements and see how, at a distance of several feet, the}' will 

 poise themselves, and in an instant, with the rapidity of lightning, 

 tlie prey is seized in their long arms and instantaneously swal- 

 lowed. They, in their turn, are devoured b}- the larger fishes, and 

 are extensively used for bait in the cod-fisher}'. (Gould, Ince?'t. 

 3Iass.) 



Atlantic Ocean from Neicfoundland souiJiicards ; Mediterranean. 



2. 0. Bartramii, Lesueur. Fig. 8. 



(.Loligo.) Journ. Pliilad. Acad., ii. 90, t. 7. 1821. 

 Loligo sagittatus, Blainv., Diet- Sc. Nat., xxvii. 140. 1823. 

 Loligo ritreus, Kang, IMag. Zool. 71, t. 36. 1837. 

 OnunastrepJies cylindricus, Orb. Voy. Am. Merid. 54, t. 3, f. 3, 4. 



