XV. 



A PRACTICAL VIEW OF DEVIL-FISHES. 



r I^HE large class of mollusks called cuttle-fishes or devil-fishes bears 

 -*- very important relations to our fisheries, and, consequently, to the 

 food -supply of the United States. Some of these cuttle-fishes attain 

 huge bulk and corresponding abilities for destruction. The two species 

 of Architeuthis, roaming through the North Atlantic, have each a total 

 length of from thirty to fifty feet, and a weight of solid flesh amounting 

 to thousands of pounds. 



"The cuttles," says Dr. Philip Carpenter, "have very acute senses. 

 They have an approach to a brain enclosed in a cartilaginous skull. They 

 can hear sounds, and evidently enjoy the taste of their food. They have 

 a large fleshy tongue, armed with recurved prickles like that of the lion. 

 They either crawl on their heads tail upwards, or swim, tail foremost, 

 striking with their arms, or squirt themselves backward by forcing water 

 forward through their breathing funnels. 



" They are ferocious creatures, the tyrants of the lower orders, and 

 do not scruple to attack and devour even fishes. The larger kinds are 

 deservedly dreaded by man. Their weapons consist in their powerful 

 arms, which are abundantly furnished with rows of cup-like suckers, each 

 of which fastens on its prey or its foe like a limpet to the rock. Often 

 these are accompanied with sharp curved teeth, strong enough to be pre- 

 served even in fossil species." 



The giant cuttle-fishes of the North {Architeuthis), and the commoner 

 squids and calamaries of our Atlantic coast, belong to the armed division 

 of the order termed decapods. The three smaller species ordinarily met 

 with are Loligo pealei, Loligo pallida, and Ommastrephes illecebrosa ; on 

 the extreme southern coast they are replaced by an octopod {Octopus 

 granulosus). 



Of these four, Loligo pealei is the common squid from Massachusetts 

 to South Carolina. "When fujl-grown (which seems to be only after sev- 

 eral years) it is more than a foot in length. The color, when living, is 



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