LOLIGID.E.- 



-MOLLUSCA.- 



-CuTTI.n-FISII. 



315 



ai]J having four rows of cups. The shell is as long as 

 tlie body, narrow, with three diverging ribs and a 

 hollow, conical apes. The Siigittated Calamaries, as 

 they are called, live in the open ocean, where they 

 occur in large troops, and are found in all climates. 

 They are nocturnal animals, appearing on the surface 

 of the sea only after evening has closed in. They are 

 greedily devoured by cetaceans and pelagic birds. 



THE COMMON SAGITTATED CALAMARY (0. sagit- 

 talus) is extensively used as bait in the cod-fishery of 

 Newfoundland. Indeed, it is so attractive to this fish, 

 that it is said one-half of all the cod taken at Newfound- 

 land is caught with it. It is exceedingly abundant at 

 times otr that coast, occurring in vast shoals, which 

 present a curious appearance by their strongly-twisted 

 compact form. Their appearance is bailed by hundreds 

 of vessels ready for their capture ; and as a writer in 

 the Edinburgh New Philosophic Journal says, "At this 

 season of the year, the sea on the coast of St. Pierre is 

 covered with from four hundred to five himdred sail of 

 English and French ships, engaged in the Cuttle-fish 

 fishery." "During violent gales of wind, hundreds of 

 tons of these molluscs are often thrown up together in 

 beils on the flat beaches, the decay of which spreads an 

 intolerable effluvium around. It is made no use of ex- 

 cept for bait; and as it maintains itself in deeper water 

 than the Capelan, instead of nets being used to take it, 

 it is jigged — a jigger being a number of hooks radiat- 

 ing from a fixed centre made for the purpose. The 

 cod is in best condition after having fed on it." The 

 Sagittated Calaraary, as this species is more particularly 

 called, is very quick and rapid in its movements. Dr. 

 Gould, speaking of it, says : — " So swift and straight 

 rs their progress, that they look like arrows shooting 

 through the water ;" and Colonel Sykes infoims us 

 that several specimens of this active creature leaped on 

 board the vessel in which he was returning from India, 

 while the wind was light and the sea calm. Indeed, 

 the common name for it amongst sailors is the " Sea 

 Arrow," or "Flying Squid." 



Family — LOLIGID.a; (Calmnaries, or Sleeve-fish). 



This family of Cuttle-fishes consists of animals which 

 have an oblong, subcylindrical body, tapering behind, 

 and much elongated in the males. The fins are situ- 

 ated on the sides of the hinder part of the hack. The 

 head is subcylindrical, and the eyes are covered by the 

 skin. The sessile arms in general have the cups or 

 suckers in two rows, and the rings are provided with 

 a narrow prominent edge on the centre of the external 

 surface. The tentacular arms have the expanded 

 extremities generally with four rows of cups, and they 

 are only partly retractile into the subocular cavity. 

 'I'lie shell is lanceolate, pennate, or spathulate, and 

 solid ; and, as Professor Owen iijlorms us, is multi- 

 plied by age, several being found packed closely, one 

 behind another, in old specimens. 



Genus Loligo. — The genus Loligo is the type, and 

 in it the horny rings of the suckers are dentated, and 

 the tentacular club has four rows of cups. The head 

 is separate from the body, and the month is free all 

 lound. The shell is as long as the back, is pennate, 



and has thin edges. The Calamaries are gregarious, 

 many individuals uniting in companies, and sallying 

 forth in the evening after sunset to scour the surface 

 of the ocean for their prey. They swim with great 

 rapidity, and also crawl head downwards on their o\a'i 

 disc. Fish, pelagic crustacea, and the oceanic molluscs, 

 form their food. 



LOLIGO MAGNA, or VULGAEIS {llie Common Sleeve- 

 fish, or Squid), occurs abundantly on the coasts of Great 

 Britain, and is eaten both by man and fishes. Mr. 

 Couch tells us that they are used as food by the natives 

 on the Cornish coast ; and he avers that they are 

 " excellent food, bearing a considerable resemblance to 

 tripe." He informs lis furtlier that on the same coast 

 it forms a favourite bait among fishermen, " few fish 

 being able to resist it." These animals deposit their 

 eggs in subcylindrical masses crowded together on sea 

 weeds, and one such cluster has been esdmated to 

 contain nearly forty thousand eggs I 



Sf.ction II.— SEPIOPHORA. 

 This section contains only one family:— 



F.\MII.Y— SEPIID^ (*;ju/s, or True Cuttle-fishes). 



These have a short, oval or rounded, and depressed 

 body, furnished with fins bordering the whole side of 

 the body, and separated from one another behind by a 

 free space or kind of neck. They have a broad head 

 and large eyes, furnished with a lower eyelid. The 

 sessile arms are short and strong, and provided with 

 four rows of suckers — the cups being spherical, fleshy, 

 oblique, and peduncled. The tentacular arms are 

 entirely retractile into the cell at their base, are long 

 and slender, .and are broadly expanded at their 

 extremities. The shell is internal, as long and as wide 

 as the body, and consists of a broad calcareous cellular 

 plate, terminating behind in a hollow imperfectly- 

 chambered tip or mucro. 



Genus Sepia. — This is the only genus in the family. 

 The species are inhabitants of all seas, and some of 

 them grow to a large size. One of these is common 

 on our own coasts, and is well known on those of 

 various parts of Europe and Africa: — 



THE COMMON SEPIA, or CUTTLE-FISH [Seina ofiici- 

 Jiafe), is of Considerable size, and is of a purjde colour 

 on the back, with darker cross bands, and with small 

 whitd spots on the side. The shell is ovate, com- 

 pressed, wrinkled above, semi-cartilaginous on the 

 edge and behind, wheie it is rounded. When young, 

 the apical beak is conical, prominent, and the upper 

 part of the last internal plate occupied ; in the adult, 

 lialf the beak becomes immersed in the cartilages, 

 and the plate is diminished to one-third the length 

 of the cavity. The thickened part of this shell is 

 composed of numerous very thin parallel calcareous 

 plates, separated by thousands of small hollow columns 

 l)Iaced upright in the spaces between every two lamina-, 

 which render it very light and porous. Dr. (iood 

 says that tlie animals aid and regulate their motions 

 by the power they have of introducing air at option 



