CHAPTER VI: THE COMMON SQUIDS 



Family LoLiGiNiOyE 



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 I, 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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