[1 93] CEPHALOPODS OF NORTHEASTERN COAST OF AMERICA. 403 



The first specimen of this species was taken off Nova Scotia, near Le 

 Have Bank, in 120 fathoms, by Capt. Samuel Peeples and crew of the 

 schooner " M. H. Perkins ", and presented to the IT. S. Fish Commission. 

 A few others have since been brought in by the Gloucester fishermen 

 from the bank fisheries. Mr. A. Agassiz dredged it on the Blake in 

 1880, as far south as K lat. 33° 42' 15". It ranges in depth from 120 to 

 603 fathoms. 



In the soft consistency of the flesh and skin this species resembles 

 Octopus ohesus. It differs in the shorter and posteriorly emarginate 

 body, and especially in the arrangement of the suckers, which in that 

 species are in a single series toward the bases of the arms. 



Octopus lentus. — Specimens examined. 



Octopus obesus Verrill. — (Stout devil-fish.) 



Octopus obesus Verrill, American Jourii. Sci., vol. xix, p. 137, Feb., 1880; vol. 

 xix, p. 294, Apr., 1880 ; Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. v, p. 379, pi. 36, figs. 3, 4, 1881. 



Plate XLII, figures 6, 6«. 



Male: Keiuarkable for the great size of the spoon-shaped organ of 

 the right arm of the third pair. Body relatively large, stout, oblong- 

 oval, somewhat flattened above, obtusely rounded at the posterior end ; 

 soft and somewhat gelatinous in texture; skin, so far as preserved, 

 smooth, soft. No cirrus exists above the eye, in our specimen, but the 

 skin is not so well preserved in that region as to render it certain that 

 a small one may not have existed, in life. Eyes very large. 



Arms moderately long, the dorsal longest, others successively shorter ; 

 all are somewhat laterally compressed at base, tapering to long, slender 

 tips; a moderately developed web connects them together at base. The 

 hectocotylized arm (third of right side), bears at the end a very large, 

 broad and thick, but not very deep, spoon-like organ, occupying more 

 than a third of the total length of the arm; its inner surface is crossed 

 by eleven oblique, thick, rounded folds or ribs, ten of them converging- 

 backward to the median line and at their outer ends joining a marginal 

 thickening; the distal end terminates in a median pointed lobe, with a 

 thin, rounded, lateral lobe each side of it ; the proximal border is 

 formed by the last (eleventh) fold, which is V-shaped, with the apex 

 pointing distally. A broad, thin, marginal membrane extends along the 



