The animal life of our seashore With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island . ilar to the one just de-scribed, and largely replacing it in the northernwaters, is the Ommastrephessagittaius, in which the ten-tacular arms are of compara-tively short length, and thecornea of the eye perforated,so as to permit of the entryof sea-water to the rare with us, thisanimal sometimes appearsin the northern waters inimmense shoals, followingin the wake of the mackerel,which constitutes its selectedfood. In this condition itdoes not hesitate to enter thepo
The animal life of our seashore With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island . ilar to the one just de-scribed, and largely replacing it in the northernwaters, is the Ommastrephessagittaius, in which the ten-tacular arms are of compara-tively short length, and thecornea of the eye perforated,so as to permit of the entryof sea-water to the rare with us, thisanimal sometimes appearsin the northern waters inimmense shoals, followingin the wake of the mackerel,which constitutes its selectedfood. In this condition itdoes not hesitate to enter thepounds and weirs, or to nav-igate between the piles ofwharves, darting with theswiftness of an arrow intothe midst of its prey, andpouncing upon the neck ofa selected victim. In thispursuit of the mackerel thesquid may be observed tochange color frequently, adapting itself in tone,by an intuitive manipulation of the pigment-bodies(chromatophores), to the surroundings which ittraverses. The squid, like many other, cuttle-fishes, is in a measure nocturnal in its habits, andis thought to be fond of gazing at the Ommastrephes sagittatus. THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 13 This liabit appears to account for the numbers fre-quently found stranded at the time of full moon, theanimal, while gazing at the luminary, incautiouslyswimming backwardand befouling itselfon the sands. A word or twoabout the frequently hearof this substance inconnection with thekeeping of canary-birds, but probablythere are not manywho associate it wdtha creature at all re- Sepiola ATLANTICA. , ,. T sembling our we slice open the back of our animal,or that side which lies opposite to thefunnel, we observe embedded withinthe flesh a long, horny style, which isusually designated tlie gladius or may be said to constitute a sort of in-ternal skeleton, giving a certain amountof rigidity to the body; but its exactfunctions are not known. In some of the squid^cuttle-fishes, notably thos
Size: 928px × 2695px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
