318 FLYING REPTILES, FISHES, AND MOLLUSCS. 



" One kind of Loligo, which we captured in the 

 Pacific Ocean, in lat. 34 N., measured six inches in 

 its entire length. The upper surface of the body is 

 grey, freckled with purple, the under white j iris 

 silvery, pupil jet black and prominent. It has eight 

 arms and two tentacles. Each arm is furnished with 

 a double row of suckers on its entire length, and all, 

 with the exception of the first or dorsal fins, have a 

 loose membrane floating from their posterior surface. 

 The two tentacles are round, slender, and twice the 

 length of the arms, and have at their extremity a 

 broad sickle- shaped membrane, covered with two rows 

 of yellow hooks of different sizes. 



" This individual leaped from the sea over the 

 high balustrades of the ship, and alighted on the 

 deck, at a time when vast flocks of the same species 

 were seen leaping around, and after striking with 

 violence against the bows of the vessel, the sea being 

 comparatively smooth. The creature was much in- 

 jured by the violence with which it had struck the 

 deck, and showed little animation : it did not attempt 

 to leap or swim when put into a bucket of sea- water, 

 though it emitted a quantity of inky fluid through a 

 canal in the body, opening by a large orifice imme- 

 diately below the neck. This secretion is contained in 

 a narrow oblong bag of silvery hue, and placed imme- 

 diately below the stomach. 



" The prehensile power of the suckers on the arms 

 was retained for a considerable time after the death of 

 the animal ; from which I should judge that, like the 

 buckles of the sucking fish, their function in a great 

 measure depends upon solely mechanical causes. 



