File:The animal life of our seashore. With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island (1888) (14597379407).jpg

Identifier: animallifeofours00heil (find matches)
Title: The animal life of our seashore. With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Heilprin, Angelo, 1853-1907
Subjects: Marine animals
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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most alonemet with, is the squid or calamarj,—the LoligoPealii of naturalists,—an animal measuring some 9 inches in the length of its body, or 18 inches including the length ofits longest arms. Noneof the fabulous mon-sters that have wrungfrom the poet and thenovelist their mythi-cal conceptions of the devil-fish, or any-thing that at all ap-proaches in dimen-sions the famous 20-foot specimen for-merly preserved in theI^ew York Aquarium,has ever been notedfroni this part of theAtlantic coast. Butwhether large or smallour animal is alike in- LoLiGo PEALII. teresting. The beauti- ful tints of the body, which, chameleon-like, varyas different patches of pigment-particles are ex-posed to the surface, cannot fail to elicit admiration,even though the general appearance of the creatureprove at first a trifle repulsive. There are, however, anumber of interesting points about this animal whichstamp it at once as being no ordinary specimen.In the first place, a euttle-fish, of whatever form
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THE SHELL-FTSH OF THE COAST 9 it may be, is next to the backboned or vertebrateanimals—the fishes, reptiles, birds, and quadru-peds—about the most complex, or, if you choose,most highly organized, of the entire animal series.It takes precedence over the star-fish, insect, crab,and lobster, and, among its own class, over thesnail, clam, and oyster. It alone among the thou-sands—nay, hundreds of thousands—of invertebrateanimals, or those lacking a backbone, possesses adistinct covering or capsule to its principal nerve-ruass, the brain, thus foreshadowing the structurewhich is so distinctive a feature of all the higheranimals. The skullof the cuttle-fish hasnot yet, however,been converted intobone, but remains in acartilaginous condi-tion, recalling in greatmeasure the condi-tion of the skull insome of the lowerfishes, the sharksand rays and stur-geon, for example.Again, Ave note aspecial developmentof the sense organs. The great round eyes thatare situated on either side of the

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