

[63] CEPIIALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 273 



ArchiteutJiiSj which had lost its tentacular arms, as is often the case 

 with stranded specimens. The length of the head is given as about 3 

 feet, and its diameter is given as 1| inches — probably a mistake for 1£ 

 feet. The more. important points are as follows: "Its arms had been 

 partially broken; there were eight of them, each as thick as a strong 

 man's upper arm, and beneath each were two rows of suckers like cup- 

 ping-glasses, more than a shilling size in circuit. When perfect, each 

 of these arms must have been from 12 to 15 feet long, and from the 

 point of one arm to that of its opposite was a length of nearly 30 feet. 

 The animal's length, from the insertion of its suckers to the end of its 

 body, must have been nearly 20 feet — perhaps more. Its mouth, like a- 

 parrot's beak, was as large as two joined hands of a large man, with 

 the fingers outstretched. It weighed about 4 cwt." 



Examples from the Indian Ocean and Neiv Zealand. 



In the Journal de Zoologie, vol. iv, No. 2, p. 88, 1875, M. Paul Gervais 

 has given a partial summary of the gigantic Cepkalopods previously 

 known, and has mentioned an additional species (Architeuthis }[<>ueliezi 

 Velain), of which portions were brought to Paris by M. Velain, from the 

 Island of Saint Paul, Indian Ocean, where it was cast ashore in Novem- 

 ber. He also quotes the brief notice of the animal by M. Velain (in 

 Comptes-Kendus, t. Ixxx, p. 1002, Stance du Avril 19, 1875). It is stated 

 that this example belongs to the same group with Ommastrephes. A 

 description and a rude figure of it, made from a photograph taken in 

 the position in which it lay upon the shore, has also been published by 

 31. Velain in the Arch, de Zool. Exper., vol. vi, p. 83, 1877. The figure 

 has been copied in Tryon's Manual of Conchology, vol. i, pi. 82. Ac- 

 cording to this figure, the tentacular arms were very long and the short 

 arms were truncated, probably owing to mutilation. One of the tentacu- 

 lar arms was saved, and, with the beak, was preserved in Paris. The 

 caudal fin was narrow and lanceolate, adhering to the sides of the body 

 by its entire length. In the latter feature this is very different from 

 any of the northern species. 



In the Archives de Zool. Experiinentale, vol. vi, 1877, M. Velain has 

 proposed a new genus (Mouchezia) for this specimen. The peculiarity 

 of the pen appears to be the only character of any special importance 

 referred to by him. 



Mr. T. W. Kirk, in the Transactions of the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society, for October, 1879, p. 310, has published accounts of the occur- 

 rence of five specimens of " giant cuttle-fish" on the coast of New Zeal- 

 and: 



No. 1. The first of these was cast ashore at Waimarama, east coast,. 

 in September, 1870. Of this the beak was preserved and sent to Mr. 

 Kirk by Mr. Meinertzhagen, whose account of the occurrence, with a 

 rather crude description and some measurements made by an eye-wit- 

 ness, Mr. Kirk has printed. He gives no description of the beak, un» 

 S. Miss. 59 18 



