290 ZOOL.OGY. 



MOLLUSC A. 



THE FLYING SQUID. 



(Loligo, Sp.) 



Many different kinds of Loligo are called by sailors 

 Flying-Squid, from a habit they have of leaping from 

 the water, and proceeding through the air to some 

 distance in a horizontal direction, like the flying-fish. 



The head of this Cephalopod is a plane circular disk, 

 surrounded by long arms, furnished on their upper 

 surface with many small circular suckers, which hold 

 with a tenacious grasp. The eyes are large, very per- 

 fectly formed, and lodged in capacious cartilaginous 

 orbits. The mouth, like that of most of the cuttle- 

 fish tribe, is horny, and shaped like the beak of a 

 parrot. A slender neck connects the head to the body, 

 and is received into the latter as into a capacious sheath. 

 The trunk is conical, tapering to a point at the tail, 

 smooth, and composed of a dense white semi-car- 

 tilaginous structure covered with a delicate membrane, 

 or skin, beneath which are deposited the brilliant co- 

 lours this mollusc often displays. Near the tail there 

 is a broad fin-like appendage, which can either be ex- 

 panded horizontally on either side or folded neatly 

 upon the abdomen. The interior of the back contains 

 an elastic horny rod, or substitute for the fe sepia-bone" 

 that occupies the same part in some other tribes of 

 cuttle-fish. It extends the entire length of the body, 

 and is flattened at its anterior extremity, whilst its cau- 

 dal end is shaped like a cup; the whole bearing some 

 resemblance to the instrument used for tasting wine 



