500 
MOLLTJSCA. 
hence popularized into calamary. They are also sometimes called Sleeve-Fish, from their resem- 
blance in shape to the sleeve of a coat. These animals have an elongated form, with broad fins at 
the apex of the body. They are exceedingly active, and are common in the Atlantic, as well as 
other seas. They are of various brilliant colors, vivid red, deep blue, violet, brown, and orange, 
and these tints are constantly changing at the will of the animal. 
THE COMMON CALAMART AND PEN. THE SBPIOLA. 
The Pen-Fish or Commok Calamary, L. vulgaris, is the best-known species of the genus: 
the body is somewhat pellucid, of a greenish hue, changeable to dirty brown ; the eyes are large 
and lustrous, of an emerald green, phosphoric and fiery in a high degree. It is common in the 
European seas, and was known to the ancient Greeks and Eomans. It is distinguished as a 
species by the fins forming a lozenge at the extremity of the sac. It is a very prolific animal, 
and the eggs are of a very singular and curious appearance: they are deposited in the form of 
numerous lengthened groups, radiating from a common center, and spreading every way into a 
circular form ; each egg is of a glassy transparency, and the young animal may be very distinctly 
observed in each, many days before the period of exclusion. These groups of the eggs of the 
calamary are often seen swimming on the surface, and are occasionally thrown on shore; the 
whole group sometimes measures more than a foot in diameter, and from its general appearance, 
unless closely inspected, is often mistaken for a species of medusa or sea-blubber. These clusters 
are found to contain thirty to forty thousand eggs each. The pen-fish is a good swimmer, and 
crawls head downward on its oval disk. Shells, and sometimes sea-weed, have been found in its 
stomach. 
The Loligo punctata is four to six inches long, and like the rest of the family, has ten arms ; 
the body is cylindrical and tapering, and about three inches in length, being covered with reddish 
rounded spots of various sizes. The usual mode of progression is by dilating the body and filling 
it with water ; it is then suddenly contracted, and the water forcibly ejected, so as to propel the 
animal backward with great rapidity, 
shooting like an arrow through the water. 
It feeds greedily on small shell-fish and 
crabs, of which it devours great num- 
bers. This species is very common on 
our coasts. Lesueur notices six other 
THE LOLIGO BKEVIPINNA. . „ -.^ , , ^ c\ 
species irom Massachusetts to bouth 
Carolina. One of these, the L. hrevipinna, is a small species, the body three to four inches long, 
beak prominent and horny ; the long arms slender, and terminating in a point. 
Genus SEPIOLA : Sepiola. — Of this there are several species in the Atlantic, Indian, and 
Pacific Oceans. They are two to four inches long. 
