214 OCTOPODID^. 



white colour. The margin of the sac free, unless at the 

 back, where it is continuous with the skin of the head. 

 Measured across the eyes the head is narrower than the 

 hody, hut seems larger, owing to the great size of the bases 

 of the arms. The eyes, although large, are comparatively 

 small. The head is crowned by a circle of large, fleshy, 

 compressed tapering arms, of unequal length, and ex- 

 tremely slender at the end ; the dorsal arms shortest — the 

 ventral pair longest. They are covered internally with a 

 single series of sessile cups elevated on broad tubercles, 

 of which there are from sixty to seventy. These suckers 

 are not in mutual contiguity, but placed at a little distance 

 from each other, and enlarge from the first to the fifth, 

 which measures three-twelfths across ; the horny portion 

 cup-shaped or hemispherical. For more than a third of 

 their length the arms are connected by wide membranes, 

 the margins of which run out upon them. The mandibles 

 are brownish black with a portion of the base white.''' The 

 length of the sac was three inches six lines, that of the 

 longest (the ventral) arms three inches nine lines, of the 

 shortest (dorsal) ones two inches ten lines. The body was 

 smooth and white. 



We cannot reconcile this account with the Eledone Al- 

 drovandi of Delle Chiaje, as described at length and beauti- 

 fully figured by Verany. That species, like our E. cirrhosus, 

 difters from the common Mediterranean moschatus in the 

 absence of a musky odour, and of a vivid blue border to 

 the brachial veil. Mr. Thompson suspected that a specimen 

 of Eledone in his possession, from Belfast bay, might be dis- 

 tinct from the common one. 



