CHAPTER VI: THE COMMON SQUIDS 



Family Loliginid.^ 



Genus LOLIGO, Lam. 



Body long; fins present, variable in size; tentacles partially 

 retractile; pen as long as the back, slender, chitinous, feathered 

 posteriorly, pointed in front, keeled below. Distribution world- 

 wide. 



The Common Squid, (L. Pealeii, Lesueur.), is typical of 

 the genus and the family. Body long, pointed, fins broad, triangu- 

 lar posterior, united behind, sessile arms eight, with two rows of 

 suckers; tentacles two, long, partially retractile, with four rows 

 of suckers; funnel attached to head; mantle free; eyes large, 

 black, lateral ; pen horny, slender, as long as the body. Colour 

 of skin changed at will. Uses, bait for cod and other sea fish. 

 Ink-sac present. Food, fish. Egg cases, called "sea mops," made 

 of long gelatinous banana-shaped sheaths, each containing 

 hundreds of eggs, forty thousand in one mop. Enemies, fish, 

 conger eels, dolphins, porpoises, sea birds. Length, 8 to 20 inches. 



Habitat. — Atlantic coast from Maine to South Carolina. 



My first acquaintance with the squid was made in China- 

 town in New York. Shapeless objects of fish and flesh hung 

 about the delicatessen shops. Dried squids were hung among 

 the rest, and quite as repulsive-looking as the worst of them. 

 "Enough to make a vegetarian of you for the rest of your life!" 



At Woods Holl, a year later, I met our common squid alive 

 in his native element. That 1 should have judged this graceful 

 beautiful creature by the mummy of an Oriental species to which 

 the "Heathen Chinee" had done his worst is scarcely worthy 

 of me. 



There were a great many little squids under two inches long 

 in a floating wooden tank by the wharf and they kept together, 

 moved by quick darts or quietly in sweeping curves — always 

 as if one impulse controlled them all. They were like little soft 



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