J68 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



KUCCAL ASPECT OF COMMON SQUID. (After S. P. Woodward.) 

 d, Dorsal Feet or Arms; /.Funnel; t,t, Tentacles. 



recorded, all dwellers in the open sea, and therefore good swimmers. They occur in the Atlantic, from 

 the Arctic seas to Madeira, in the Mediterranean, the seas of India and Japan, and even in the South 

 Sea, and attain a length of from six to twelve inches. 



A very interesting member of this family is named Cheiroteuthis.* Although the length of its 

 body is often less than three inches, its tentacular arms measure three feet in length, and its other 



arms eight inches to one foot. Its ventral 

 arms are longest. Its long slender tentacles 

 have single cups or suckers scattered at 

 distant intervals along their stalks, and 

 four rows of pedimculated claws on their 

 expanded extremities. The pen, which is 

 slender, is slightly winged at both ends. 

 The fin is broadly rounded, and pointed at 

 its extremity. Two species are described, 

 one of which has been met with in the 

 Mediterranean, the other on the Gulf-weed 

 in mid- Atlantic. 



Inlfistioteuthis-f, the terminal fins are 

 rounded; the body is very short, the head 

 being larger almost in proportion. The 



feet, with the exception of the ventral pair, are webbed high up, thus forming a semi-parachute. 

 The tentacles are long, and placed outside the web formed by the union of the three dorsal pairs of 

 feet ; the ends of the tentacles are armed with six rows of cups or suckers with dentated borders. 

 The pen is short and broad-bladed, like an old bronze arrow-head in shape. Two forms of this genus 

 inhabit the Mediterranean in the open sea. 



The Clawed Calamary (Onyckotetdkis J) has an elongated, cylindrical body, terminating in a 

 broadly-expanded, rhombic, somewhat-pointed caudal fin. The feet are unequal, with two rows of 

 suckers on each. The tentacula are long and powerful, the club-shaped extremity 

 being armed with a double series of hooks, and having xisually a small group of 

 suckers at the base. The shell, which is narrow, terminates in a slender, hollow, 

 conical point. 



Perfect as is the apparatus of suckers, with which the prehensile organs of the 

 Dibranchiate division of the Cephalopoda are provided, still, it would seem, there are 

 circumstances in which even these would be insufficient to enable their possessor to fulfil 

 all the offices in the economy of nature for which it was designed ; and in those species 

 which have to contend with the agile, slippery, and mucous- clad fishes, more powerful 

 organs of prehension are superadded to the suckers. 



In the Calamary the base of the piston of each sucker is enclosed by a horny hoop, 

 the outer and anterior margin of which is developed into a series of sharp-pointed, 

 curved teeth. These can. be firmly pressed into the flesh of a struggling prey by the 

 contraction of the surrounding transverse fibres, and can be withdrawn by the 

 action of the retractor fibres of the piston. Let the reader picture to himself the 

 projecting margin of the horny hoop developed into a long, curved, sharp-pointed 

 claw, and these weapons clustered at the expanded terminations of the tentacles, and 

 arranged in a double alternate series along the whole internal surface of the eight 

 muscular feet, and he will have some idea of the formidable nature of the carnivorous 

 Onychoteuthis. 



We cannot quit this part of our subject without noticing a structure which adds 

 greatly to the prehensile powers of these uncinated Calamaries. At the extremities of the long tentacles, 

 in addition to the clawed suckers, a cluster of small, simple, unarmed suckers may be observed at the 

 base of each of the expanded, club-like extremities. When these small, simple suckers are applied 



* Cheir, Gr., a hand, and Gr., teuthis, a Squid. f Histion, Gr., a veil, and teuthis 



J Onyx, Gr., a claw, and teuthis. 



LOLIGOPSIS VER- 

 MICULAKIS. 



