148 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [412] 
sometimes repeated a dozen times before one of these active and wary 
fishes could be caught. Sometimes after making several unsuccessful 
attempts one of the squids would suddenly drop to the bottom, and, 
resting upon the sand, would change its color to that of the sand so 
perfectly as to be almost invisible. In this way it would wait until the 
fishes came back, and when they were swimming close to or over the 
ambuscade, the squid, by a sudden dart, would be pretty sure to secure 
a fish. Ordinarily when swimming they were thickly spotted with 
red and brown, but when darting among the mackerel they appeared 
translucent and pale. The mackerel, however, seemed to have learned 
that the shallow water is the safest for them and would hug the shore as 
closely as possible, so that in pursuing them many of the squids became 
stranded and perished by hundreds, for when they once touch the shore 
they begin to pump water from their siphons with great energy, and this 
usually forces them farther and farther up the beach. At such times 
they often discharge their ink in large quantities. The attacks on 
the young mackerel were observed mostly at or near high-water, for 
at other times the mackerel were seldom seen, though the squids were 
seen swimming about at all hours; and these attacks were observed 
both in the day and evening. But it is probable, from various observa- 
tions, that this and the other species of squids are partially nocturnal 
in their habits, or at least are more active in the night than in the day. 
Those that are caught in the pounds and weirs mostly enter in the 
night, and evidently when swimming along the shores in “ schools.” 
They are often found in the morning stranded on the beaches in im- 
mense numbers, especially when there is a full moon, and it is thought 
by many of the fishermen that this is because, like many other noc- 
turnal animals, they have the habit of turning toward and gazing ata 
bright light, and since they swim backwards they get ashore on the 
beaches opposite the position of the moon. This habit is also some- 
times taken advantage of by the fishermen who capture them for bait 
for cod-fish; they go out in dark nights with torches in their boats and 
by advancing slowly toward a beach drive them ashore. They are also 
sometimes taken on lines, adhering to the bait used for fishes. 
The specimens observed catching young mackerel were mostly eight 
or ten inches long, and some of them were still larger. The length of 
time required for these squids to become full grown is unknown, as well 
as the duration of their lives, but as several distinct sizes were taken in 
the pounds, and those of each school were of about the same size, it is 
probable that they are several years in attaining their full size. A 
specimen, recently caught at Eastport, Maine, was pale bluish white, 
with green, blue, and yellow iridescence on the sides and lower surface; 
the whole body was more or less thickly covered with small, unequal, circu- 
lar, orange-brown and dark brown spots, having crenulate margins; these 
spots are continually changing in size from mere points, when they are 
nearly black, to spots 0.04 to 0.06 of aninch in diameter, when they are 
