690 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Young Squids in inconceivable numbers, and even the adults, are greedily devoured by 

 bluefish, black bass, striped bass, weakfish, mackerel, cod, and many other marine animals. 

 Thus they are really of great importance as food for our most valuable market fishes. 



North of Cape Cod the Squid is represented by the Sea-arrow or Flying Calamary, Omma- 

 8trephf8 illecebrosus, sometimes called "short-finned" in contrast to the long "fins" characteristic 

 of the Loligos, which they resemble in size and color. 



Professor Verrill has given the following graphic account of this species : 



" When living, this is a very beautiful creature, owing to the brilliancy of its eyes and its bright 

 and quickly-changing colors. It is also very quick and graceful in its movements. This is the 

 most common 'Squid' north of Cape Cod, and extends as far south as Newport, Rhode Island, and 

 in deep water to the region off Cape Hatteras. It is very abundant in Massachusetts Bay, the 

 Bay of Fundy, and northward to Newfoundland. It is taken on the coast of Newfoundland in 

 immense numbers, and used as bait for codfish. It occurs in vast schools when it visits the coast, 

 but whether it seeks those shores for the purpose of spawning or in search of food is not known. 

 I have been unable to learn anything personally in regard to its breeding habits, nor have I been 

 able to ascertain that any one has any information in regard either to the time, manner, or place 

 of spawning. At Eastport, Maine, I have several times observed them in large numbers in mid- 

 summer. But at that time they seemed to be wholly engaged in the pursuit, of food, following 

 the schools of herring, which were then in pursuit of shrimp (Thysanopoda norvegica), which occur 

 in the Bay of Fuudy, at times, in great quantities, swimming at the surface. The stomachs of the 

 Squids taken on these occasions were distended with fragments of Thysanopoda, or with the flesh 

 of the herring, or with a mixture of the two, but their reproductive organs were not in an active 

 condition. The same is true of all the specimens that I have taken at other localities in summer. 

 From the fact that the oviducts are small and simple, and the nidamental glands little developed, 

 I believe that it will eventually prove that this species discharges its eggs free in the ocean, and 

 that they will be found floating at the surface, either singly or in gelatinous masses or bands, not 

 having any complicated capsules to inclose them. Nothing is known as to the length of time 

 required by this species to attain its full size. It probably lives several years. 



"This Squid is an exceedingly active creature, darting with great velocity backward, or in 

 any other direction, by means of the reaction of the jet of water which is ejected with great force 

 from the siphon, and which may be directed forward or backward, or to the right or left, by 

 bending the siphon. Even when confined in a limited space, as in a fish-pond, it is not an easy 

 matter to capture them with a dip-net, so quick will they dart away to the right and left. When 

 darting rapidly the lobes of the caudal fin are closely wrapped around the body and the arms are 

 held tightly together, forming an acute bundle in front, so that the animal, in this condition, is 

 sharp at both ends, and passes through the water with the least possible resistance. Its caudal 

 fin is used as an accessory organ of locomotion when it slowly swims about or balances itself for 

 some time nearly in one position in the water. 



"The best observations of the modes of capturing its prey are by Messrs. S. I. Smith and Oscar 

 Harger, who observed it at Provincetown, Massachusetts, among the wharves, in large numbers, 

 July 28, 1872, engaged in capturing and devouring the young mackerel, which were swimming 

 about in ' schools,' and at that time were about four or five inches long. In attacking the mackerel 

 they would suddenly dart backward among the fish with the velocity of an arrow, and as suddenly 

 turn obliquely to the right or left and seize a fish, which was almost instantly killed by a bite in 

 the back of the neck with their sharp beaks. The bite was always made in the same place, cutting 

 out a triangular piece of flesh, and was deep enough to penetrate to the spinal cord. The attacks 



