318 INVERTEBRATA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



LOLI'GO ILLECEBRO X SA, LESUEUR; Journ. dead. Nat. Sc. t ii. 95, with 

 figures. 



The Squid. This beautiful animal is occasionally seen on all 

 parts of the shore of Massachusetts. But it is especially abun- 

 dant about sandy shores, as at Cape Cod. At Provincetovvn I 

 have seen them stranded upon the beach at low tide, in great mul- 

 titudes. Their usual mode of swimming is by dilating their sac- 

 shaped body and filling it with water. The body is then suddenly 

 contracted and the water forcibly ejected, so as to propel them 

 backwards, with great rapidity. So swift and straight is their pro- 

 gress, that they look like arrows shooting through the water. 

 Whenever they strike the shore, they commence pumping the 

 water with increased violence, while every effort only tends to 

 throw them still further upon the sand, until they are left high and 

 dry. The body is beautifully spotted with colors which seem to 

 vary with the emotions of the animal. At one moment they are 

 a vivid red, at the next a deep blue, violet, brown, or orange. 

 They devour immense numbers of small fish, and it is amusing to 

 watch their movements and see how, at a distance of several feet, 

 they will poise themselves, and in an instant, with the rapidity of 

 lightning, the prey is seized in their long arms and instantaneously 

 swallowed. They, in their turn, are devoured by the larger 

 fishes, and are extensively used for bait in the cod fishery. 



They have a single bone, if it may be so called, running the 

 whole length of the body. It is composed of a flexible, elastic 

 substance resembling mica, and, in this ,species, its form is like 

 the double paddle of the Greenlander, only it is very slender. 



CLASS TUNICATA, CUVIER. 



The animals belonging to this class were included by Lamarck 

 among the Radiata, which are of a very different organization. 

 They are marine animals, of a gelatinous or muscular structure, 

 generally in the form of sacs with one or two openings. Most of 



