8 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 



common form, and the one that is almost alone 

 met with, is the squid or calamary, — the Lolu/o 

 Pealii of naturalists, — an animal measuring some 



9 inches in the length of its body, or 18 inches 



including the length of 

 its longest arms. None 

 of the fabulous mon- 

 sters that have wrung 

 from the poet and the 

 novelist their mythi- 

 cal conceptions of the 

 ' devil-fish,' or any- 

 thing that at all ap- 

 proaches in dimen- 

 sions the famous 20- 

 foot specimen for- 

 merly preserved in the 

 New York Aquarium, 

 has ever been noted 

 from this part of the 

 Atlantic coast. But 

 whether large or small 

 our animal is alike in- 



LoLiGo PEALII. teresting. The beauti- 



ful tints of the body, which, chameleon-like, vary 

 as different patches of pigment-particles are ex- 

 posed to the surface, cannot fail to elicit admiration, 

 even though the general appearance of the creature 

 prove at first a trifle repulsive. There are, however, a 

 number of interesting points about this animal which 

 stamp it at once as being no ordinary specimen. 

 In the first place, a cuttle-fish, of whatever form 



