A GIANT SQUID {ARCHITEUTHIS-) ON SCOTTISH COAST 137 



for bait by the Gloucester, Mass., fishing-fleet at the Great 

 Banks in 1875 m the Eastern Atlantic they are of rare 

 occurrence. But they are inhabitants of the depths of the 

 ocean, and appear at the surface only under exceptional 

 conditions, so that they may be more abundant than the 

 scanty records would lead one to suppose. 



I know of only four records of specimens attributed to 

 Architeutkis, from the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 British Isles. In 1673 a " monster was taken at Dingle-I-cosh, 

 in the County of Kerry, being driven up by a great storm 

 in the month of October last." The quaint contemporary 

 descriptions of this Squid by "a very sober person in 

 Dublin" and others, led Mr A. G. More to establish for it a 

 new genus and species Dinoteuthis proboscideus} but Prof. 

 A. E. Verrill regarded it as no more than an example of 

 A rchiteuthis monachus. 



In 1875 another large specimen afforded exciting sport 

 to the crew of a curragh (a light boat with wooden ribs and 

 tarred canvas sides) off Boffin Island on the west of Ireland. 

 A chase of two hours' duration resulted in the capture, five 

 miles at sea, of two sessile arms each 8 feet long, of tentacular 

 arms 30 feet in length, and of the head with eyes 1 5 inches 

 in diameter. This Giant Squid was regarded by Mr A. G. 

 More as an example of Architeutkis dux, Steenstrup, but 

 Prof. Verrill, whose experience of large squids is unique, 

 could find in the description nothing to distinguish it from 

 A. harveyi (Kent) Verrill. 



In October 1880 a third Irish specimen was cast ashore 

 at Kilkee, County Clare, and from a very imperfect descrip- 

 tion which appeared in Nature (vol. xxii., 1880, p. 585), 

 Verrill regards it as having been not an Octopus, as was 

 alleged, but probably an Architeutkis. 



The only Scottish example of a large Squid of which any 

 record has been preserved is one mentioned in Jeffreys' 

 British Conchology (vol. v., p. 124) as having been stranded 

 in i860 or 1 86 1 on the Shetland coast between Hillswick 

 and Scalloway. Its tentacles were 16 feet long, its sessile 

 arms about half that length, its body about 7 feet, and a 



1 Zoologist, 1875. 



78 S 



