

The Cephalopods of the Northeastern Coast of America. 

 By a, E. Verrill. 



Part II, the smaller cephalopods, including the " squids" and 

 the octopi, with other allied forms. 



Before proceeding with the sjjecial subjects of this Part it seems 

 desirable to describe in detail an important, though young and small, 

 example of one of the gigantic species of Architeuthis, as a supple- 

 ment to the first part of this article. 



Description of a young example of Architeuthis Harveyi. 

 Plates XXVI and XXXVIII. 



This specimen, which I have designated as No. 24, was received 

 subsequent to the publication of the previous part of this article. 

 It was found, dead and mutilated, floating at the surface, at the 

 Grand Bank of Newfoundland, April, 1880, by Capt. O. A. Whitten and 

 crew of the schooner " Wra. H. Oakes," and by them it was well pre- 

 served and presented to the U. S. Commission of P^ish and Fisheries. 

 It is of great interest because it furnishes the means of completing 

 the description of parts that were lacking or badly preserved in the 

 larger specimens, especially the sessile arms and the buccal mem- 

 branes. 



The specimen consists of a part of the head with all the arms 

 attached, and with the suckers in a good state of preservation on all 

 the arms, though the tips of all the short arms, except one, are 

 destroyed, and all of the arms are more or less injured on their outer 

 surfaces. The jaws and buccal membranes are intact, with the odon- 

 tophore and oesophagus. Parts of the cartilaginous skull, with some 

 of the ganglia and the collapsed eyes are present, but the external 

 surface of the head is gone and the eyelids are badly mutilated. No 

 part of the body was pi'cserved. The tentacular-arms are in good 

 preservation, with all the suckers present. TJnfoi-tunately the distal 

 portions of both the ventral arms had been destroyed, so that the 

 sex cannot be determined. The color of the head, so far as pre- 

 served, and of the external surfaces of the sessile arms is much like 

 that of the common squids, — a rather dark purplish brown, due to 

 minute crowded specks of that color, thickly distributed, with a pink- 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. V. 32 June, 1880. 



