Fig. 318. Sepia officinalis (Linnæus).
The cuttle-fishes are found on every shore, and wherever they are found they are eaten, for their flesh is savoury. They are usually fried or boiled. They form an excellent bait for large ground-fish, such as dog-fish, rays, and congers, which are fond of their flesh.
Thirty species are known, and they are chiefly characterised by the arrangement and form of the cupules of the arms. Sepia officinalis is common on the shores of the ocean from Sweden to the Canaries, and in all parts of the Mediterranean.
The fourth family, Teuthidæ, contains Loligopsis, Cranchia, and Loligo.
The Calmars were described by Aristotle under the name of Γείφις, and by Pliny under that of Loligo, which is still retained as the generic name. Their popular name of Calmar (calamar in old French) is taken from their resemblance to certain species of ink-holders. Oppian, who endowed the argonaut with wings, believed that the calmar also could take to the air, in order to avoid his enemies. Nevertheless, he was much puzzled how to give the form and functions of a bird to a fish. Themistocles, by way of insult to the Eretrians, likened them to calmars, saying they had swords and no hearts. Athenæus, a Greek physician before Galen, dwelt upon the nourishing properties of the flesh of the calmar.
Common enough in temperate regions, the calmars abound in the seas of the Torrid zone: they are gregarious, and live in numerous shoals, their bands taking every year the same direction, their emigration proceeding from temperate to warm regions—nearly the same course as that followed by the herrings and pilchards.
The calmars, like the cuttles, propel themselves backwards through the water with great velocity, driving back the water by means of their locomotive tube, moving with such vigour and promptitude that they have been known to throw themselves out of the water, falling on the shore or on the deck of a vessel. They only appear momentarily on the shore, and only sojourn there to deposit their eggs, which are gelatinous in substance, about the level of the lowest tides. The body in the calmars is longer than in the cuttle-fish, cylindrical in shape, and terminating in a point, having two lateral fins, which occupy the lower half or third of its body.
Fig. 319. Loligo vulgaris, with its Fig. 320. Loligo
pen, or internal bone (Lamarck). Gahi (D'Orbigny).