232 TEUTHID.E. 



Loligo saijittaia, var. B. Lamarck, Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. do Paris, p. 18, — 



Anim. sans Vert. v. vii. p. G85 Verany, Moll. 



Med. vol. i. p. 107, pi. 31 and 32. 

 „ Brogniartii, Blainville, Diet. Sc. Nat. xxvii. p. 14"2. — Feruss. and 

 D'Obbignv, Ceph. Acet, Calmars. pi. 4. 

 Ommastrephes sagittatus, D'Orbigny, Ceph. Acet. p. 345. — Idem, Moll. Rec. et 

 Foss. vol. i. p. 418, pi. 29, f. 12, 16. 



At the moment when we had ahnost given up hope of 

 proving this often-recorded cuttle-fish to be British, or at 

 least an English species, since it seemed probable that in 

 most instances 0. todarus had been mistaken for it, the 

 Marchioness of Hastings, whose zeal in the cause of natural 

 history and indefatigable palseontological researches has 

 rendered many services to natural history, kindly for- 

 warded to us a cuttle-fish \vhich had been taken at 

 Brighton : it proved to be the true Ommastrephes saglt- 

 tatus. Not long afterwards, a second individual was taken 

 by our friend Mr. Mackie, Collector of Folkstone, and, 

 also, sent to us for examination. 



The first of these was the smaller specimen ; it measured 

 seven inches and a half in length of body, one inch in length 

 of head, five inches in length of longest arm, and seven 

 inches in length of tentacles. The fins were four inches in 

 length, large in proportion to the bod}', indicative of its 

 being a female, and their greatest breadth was five and a 

 half inches. Its colour was of a beautiful pearly grey, 

 blushed with red and bronze, and speckled on the dorsal 

 aspects of body, head and tentacles with numerous purple 

 and yellow dots, which became few and scattered beneath. 



The body in this species is elongated and cylindrical, 

 and in male individuals the finned portion occupies only 

 two-thirds of its length. Below the upper junction of the 

 fins it suddenly contracts and tapers to an obtuse extre- 

 mity. The fins form, with that part of the body to which 



