no MR. OWEN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF 



their breadth and length are the same ; their superior contour is an obtuse angle. Their 

 inferior margin is rounded in the Cranchia cardioptera of Peron, to which the species 

 under consideration has a superficial resemblance ; the terminal fins have a semicircular 

 contour, and their origins are widely separated anteriorly ; they also extend beyond the 

 termination of the trunk : the trunk is broader in proportion to the head, and does not 

 diminish gi'adually to a point, but is rounded off at the posterior extremity. The Cran- 

 chia minima of Ferussac may be at once distinguished from Loligo laticeps by the ex- 

 tension of the trunk beyond the small rounded fins, which gives a trilobate contour to 

 the termination of the body. 



The gladius is proportionally as well developed in this small species as in the larger 

 Calamaries : it commences by a firm blunt anterior extremity, about one third from 

 which the sides begin to dilate until within the same distance from the posterior end, 

 towai'ds which they converge to a point : the expanded part of the gladius is very con- 

 cave towards the viscera. 



The mandibles have the usual form, the lower one overlapping the upper ; the dark- 

 coloured exposed part is of greater extent than in the Cranchia. They are surrounded 

 by a tumid inner circular lip, minutely plicated transversely ; the external membranous 

 lip presents a free and slightly indented internal margin ; its external margin is produced 

 into eight pointed processes, which, as in Loligo todarus and Lol. Piscatorum, are tied 

 down to the inner surface of the arms, and are without rudimental suckers. 



Of the arms, the 3rd pair are the longest ; the 2nd, 4th, and 1st pair successively di- 

 minish in length, but in a very slight degree. The suckers are arranged at the margins 

 of the inner surface in a double alternate series, attached by moderately long and slender 

 peduncles, having a lateral insertion ; the diameter of the suckers is half that of the part 

 of the arm which supports them. In the tentacles the suckers are confined to the dilated 

 extremities, as in Loligo vulgaris : they are here arranged in three or four irregular series, 

 and present the following peculiarity : — the peduncles, which are at first filiform, dilate 

 at their commencement, before they are attached to the sucker, like the calyx of a 

 flower ; and the cavity of the sucker is continued in this dilated part (PL XXI. figg. 8, 10.) 



With respect to the anatomy of this minute species, we cannot be surprised that it is 

 in every respect as complex as that of the largest of the genus of which it presents all 

 the external character : just as in the highest class of animals, the harvest-mouse exem- 

 plifies as perfectly the mammiferous type of organization as the elephant. The gills in 

 Loligo laticeps are attached through their entire length by a membrane to the sides of 

 the mantle ; the branchial hearts, to which the above connecting membranes have a re- 

 lation of coexistence, are provided with small fleshy appendages, as in other Calamaries, 

 and indeed as in all the Dibranchiata which have the funnel articulated with the 

 mantle. 



The divisions of the vena cava, and the extremities of the visceral veins, have thick- 

 ened spongy coats, with a tolerably smooth and equal external surface : the systemic 



