166 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
been found at Hayti, Cuba, Babia, the Isle of France, 
the East Indies, and in the Red Sea. . . . This Ce- 
phalopod lives almost always amongst rocks, and 
generally hides itself in the holes and crevices, into 
which it penetrates with great ease, its body being 
very supple and elastic. It is in these recesses that 
he lies watching for the animals on which he lives; as 
soon as he perceives them, be cautiously leaves his 
den, darts like an arrow on his victim, which he wraps 
himself about, clasps in his serpent-like arms, and fixes, 
by means of his suckers. . . . Sometimes he places him- 
self upon sandy ground at a short distance from the 
rocks, and is careful to construct a hiding-place. For 
this purpose he brings together, in the form of a circle, 
a quantity of pebbles, which he carries by fixing them 
on his arms by means of his suckers. Then, having 
formed a sort of crater, he ensconces himself in it, 
and there waits patiently for some fish or crab to 
pass, which he skilfully seizes.^^ ^^The young Poillps 
in summer come to the pebbly shores, and they are 
sometimes met with in muddy places, from which 
they are taken by the trawl, together with numbers of 
Eledon [Eledone cirrhosus). They are usually fished 
for with a line without a hook, instead of which is sub- 
stituted a piece of dog-fish, a bit of cuttle-fish, a white 
fish, a bone, a piece of suet, or some attractive sub- 
stance weighted with a small stone. . . . They are also 
caught with a small olive-branch, fixed at the end of a 
rod, fitted with a hook, which is drawn backwards and 
forwards before the openings of the holes and crevices 
of the rocks.^^ 
M. Verany further states that the fishermen catch the 
large ones with the leister, or trident, and in summer the 
