SQUIDS, CUTTLE-FISH, AND THEIR ALLIES 163 
vessels. They differ from the Loligo by reason 
of their longer and more slender bodies, shorter 
posterior fins, and the extreme slenderness of 
the pen. 
Then we have a small species known as the 
sepiola, a dwarf of its kind whose body only 
measures about an inch in length. 
It is sometimes caught in shrimp nets off 
our Southern coast, and is quite common in 
the Mediterranean, being offered for sale as 
food in the Italian fish-markets. The habits 
of the creature are very curious, for it buries 
itself beneath the sand up to the level of its 
eyes. 
When making its hiding-place it squirts 
jets of water upon the sand through its funnel, 
until a cavity has been produced of sufficient 
size to enable it to sit inside. The shifting 
sand then quickly settles around it, so that 
only its head, eyes and arms are visible above 
the surface. 
That some squids attain to enormous dimen¬ 
sions is proved by the records of many writers. 
In 1874 a specimen was captured in Logie 
Bay, Newfoundland, whose tentacular arms 
were twenty-four feet in length, the shorter 
or sessile arms measuring six feet. These 
measurements, however, were exceeded by 
another individual which was washed ashore 
