484 



THE OCEAN WORLD. 



The calmars, common enough in temperate regions, abound in 

 the seas of the torrid zone ; they are gregarious, and live in nume- 

 rous shoals, these flocks taking every year the same direction, their 

 emigration proceeding from temperate to warm regions nearly the 

 same course as that followed by the herrings and pilchards. 



The calmars, like the cuttles, propel themselves backwards through 

 the water with great velocity, driving back the water by means of 

 their funnel, moving with such vigour and promptitude that they have 

 been known to throw themselves out of the water, falling on the shore 



Fig. 327. Loligo vulgaris, with its pen, 

 or internal bone (Lamarck). 



Fig. 328. Loligo Gahi 

 (d'Orbigny). 



or on the deck of a vessel. They only appear momentarily on the 

 shore, and only sojourn there to deposit their eggs, which are gela- 

 tinous in substance, about the level of the lowest tides. The body 

 in the calmars is longer than in the cuttle-fish, cylindrical in shape, 

 and terminating in a point, having two lateral fins, which occupy the 

 lower half or one-third of its body. 



In the common calmar, Loligo vulgaris (Fig. 327), and the Loligo 

 Gahi (Fig. 328), we have two extreme forms represented, both taken 

 from the magnificent work of MM. d'Orbigny and Ferussac, on the 

 Cephalopodes acetabulifores. These molluscs are whitish-blue and 

 transparent, covered with spots of bright red. The pen is lanceolate 

 that of the male elongated and somewhat resembling a feather, that 

 of the female much broader and more obtuse. Their head is short, 



