62 HABITS OF THE CEPHALOPODA. 



Loligo vulgaris. I have observed several Calamaries of 

 moderate size; these animals are always in motion, which is 

 rapid and jerky. 1 never found them in repose, for they are 

 essentially pelagic, and only approach the coast to oviposit. 



The Calamary completely extends Us arms and keeps a posi- 

 tion more or less oblique, hut approaching horizontal. The arms 

 are united into a single flattened mass, sharp at the summit, by 

 reason of their unequal length; the tentacular arms, with their 

 extremities applied one to the oilier, form this extreme point. 



When the Calamary swims forwards, the animal takes an 

 oblique position, the head directed downward; when it swims 

 backwards, on the contrary, the head is raised and the lins 

 depressed. In forward motion the extremity of the tentacles is 

 bent down; in backward moiion it is raised. 'Phis ordinary 

 swimming is sensibly more rapid than that of the Sepia, but if 

 i he Calamary is disquieted it is off like a Hash. Rapid motion 

 is always retrograde; when the iins are folded up and the funnel 

 brought into use. After having seen ihe rapidity wiih which 

 the Calamary darts through the 1 water. 1 can understand how it 

 sometimes shoots oui of the waier and falls on the deck of 

 vessels. 



My Calamaries would not take nourishment; they died at the 

 end of a 1'ew days, without having modified until ihe last moment 

 their habitual activity. 



Octopus vulyaris. The Ponlpe is timid and hides itself under 

 rocks. Its arms touch the earth by their cups, and are bent 

 behind; those of the first pair are thus widely separated. The 

 sack is incurved from front to rear, and describes a curve with 

 the concavity inferior. Thus placed the' animal examines all 

 that passes around it. If one gives it something ioeat.it is 

 seen to elongate slowly the first pair of arms as far as its prey, 

 and to draw it towards its mouth. I have never 1 observed the 

 Sepia eal. and consequently do not know whether it grasps its 

 prey by means of iis tentacular arms or by the sessile arms of 

 the first pair. 



I will not speak here of the (-hangings of color in the Poulpe ; 

 they are more varied and more rapid than ! hose of t he Sepia ; 

 and at ihe same time ihe rugosities of the head and sack appear 

 and disappear wiih great rapidity. 



