CEPHALOPODA. #09 



is lengthened, and comparatively slender. Imbedded 

 in the fleshy mantle, but so totally unconnected, that 

 on slitting up the back it immediately falls out, is 

 found a long thin transparent plate of cartilage, 

 dilated at one end, and tapering to a point, and at 

 the other somewhat cylindrical, and thus bearing no 

 small resemblance to a pen, both in the barrel and 

 feather. This curious support, (calamus, a pen,) 

 seems to have given the name of Calamary to the 

 genus. 



The Pen-fish, or common Calamary (L. Vulgaris), 

 is the best known species of the genus : the body is 

 somewhat pellucid, of a greenish hue, changeable to 

 dirty brown ; the eyes are large and lustrous, of an 

 emerald green, phosphoric and fiery in a high de- 

 gree. It is common in the European seas, though 

 less abundant than the Poulpe or the Cuttle, and 

 was not unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, 

 It is distinguished as a species, by the fins forming a 

 lozenge at the extremity of the sac. " It is a very 

 prolific animal ; and the eggs are of a very singular 

 and curious appearance : they are deposited in the 

 form of numerous lengthened groups, radiating from 

 a common centre, and spreading every way into a 

 circular form ; each egg is of a glassy transparency, 

 and the young animal may be very distinctly observ- 

 ed in each, many days before the period of exclu- 

 sion. These groups of the eggs of the Calamary are 

 often seen swimming on the surface, and are occasion- 

 ally thrown on shore; the whole group sometimes 

 measures more than a foot in diameter, and from its 



