HABITS OF THE SEA-AKHOW. 



were uot always successful, and were sometimes repeated a dozen times before one of these active 

 and wary ttsbes could be caught. Sometimes, after making several unsuccessful attempts, one of 

 the Squids would suddenly drop to the bottom, and, resting upon the sand, would change its color 

 to that of the sand so perfectly as to be almost invisible. In this position it would wait until the 

 fishes came back, and when they were swimming close to or over the ambuscade, the Squid, by a 

 sadden dart, would be pretty sure to secure a fish. Ordinarily, when swimming, they were thickly 

 spotted with red and brown, but when darting among the mackerel they appeared translucent and 

 Vale. The mackerel, however, seemed to have learned that the shallow water was the safest for 

 them, and would hug the shore as closely as possible, so that in pursuing them many of the Squids 

 became stranded and perished by the hundreds, for when they once touch the shore they begin 

 to pump water from their siphons with great energy, and this usually forces them farther and 

 farther up the beach. At such times they often discharge their ink in large quantities. The 

 attacks on the young mackerel were observed mostly at or near high water, for at other times the 

 mackerel were seldom seen, though the Squids were seen swimming about at all hours, and these 

 attacks were observed both in the day and evening. 



It is probable, from various observations, that this and other species of Squids are mainly 

 nocturnal in their habits, or at least are much more active in the night than in the day. Those 

 that are caught in the pounds and weirs mostly enter in the night, evidently while swimming 

 along the shores in 'schools.' They often get aground on the sand-flats at Provincetown, 

 Massachusetts, in the night. On the islands in the Bay of Fundy, even where there are no flats, 

 I have often found them in the morning stranded on the beaches in immense numbers, especially 

 when there is a full moon, and it is thought by many of the fishermen that this is because, like 

 many other nocturnal animals, they have the habit of turning toward and gazing at a bright 

 light, and since they swim backwards, they get ashore on the beaches opposite the position of the 

 moon. This habit is also sometimes taken advantage of by the fishermen, who capture them for 

 bait for codfish. They go out in dark nights with torches in their boats, and by advancing slowly 

 toward a beach drive them ashore. They are taken in large* quantities in nets and pounds, and 

 also by means of 'jigs' or groups of hooks, which are moved up and down in the water, and to 

 which the Squids cling, and are then quickly pulled out of the water. They are also sometimes 

 caught by fish-hooks, or adhering to the bait used for fishes. 



"Their habit of discharging an inky fluid through the siphon, when irritated or alarmed, is 

 well known. The ink is said U> have caustic and irritating properties. 



" This Squid, like the Loligo, is eagerly pursued by the cod and many other voracious fishes, 

 even when adult Among its enemies while young are the full-grown mackerel, who thus retaliate 

 for the massacre of their own young by the Squids. The specimens observed catching young 

 mackerel were mostly eight to ten inches long, and some of them were still larger. 



"This species, like the common Loltgo, has the instincts and habits of a cannibal, for small 

 Squids of its own species form one of the most common articles of its diet. From an adult female 

 of ordinary size (G, of our tables), caught at Eastport, Maine, I took a great mass of fragments 

 of small Squids, with which the stomach was greatly distended. These fragments coropletely 

 tilled a vial having a capacity of four fluid ounces. 



"From the rapidity with which the Squids devour the fish that they capture it is evident 

 that the jaws are the principal organs used, and that the odotitophore plays only a subordinate 

 part in feeding. This is confirmed by the condition of the fowl ordinarily found in the stomach, 

 for both the tishes and the shrimp are usually in fragments and shreds of some size, and smaller 

 creatures, like amphipods, are often found entire, or nearly so; even the vertebrae and other 



