A. E. Verrill — JSforth American Cephalopods. 179 



time and place of occurrence of fourteen of the specimens enumerated 

 below, it seems desirable to bring together, at this time, accounts of 

 all these, as well as of several additional specimens, in order that the 

 various descriptions and measurements may be more readily com- 

 pared, and also that some errors in the former accounts may be 

 corrected and new information added. To facilitate the comparison 

 of the general accounts of the twenty examples that I am now able 

 to enumerate from our coast, I have given, by themselves, the state- 

 ments of the time and place of their occurrence, with such general 

 descriptions and measurements of each, as are most available, reserv- 

 ing the more detailed special descriptions of the preserved specimens 

 for the systematic part of this article. 



This seemed the more desirable because the information concerning 

 many of the specimens is so scanty as to render it impossible to refer 

 them, with certainty, to either of the species now recognized or named. 

 It is probable, however, that only three distinct forms exist among the 

 large Newfoundland specimens of Architeiithis, and two of these may 

 be merely the males and females of one species. One of the principal 

 differences usually indicated by the measurements is in respect to the 

 size and length of the shorter arms, one form having them compara- 

 tively stout, often " thicker than a man's thigh," while the other form 

 has them long and slender, (usually three to five inches in diameter, 

 with a length of six to eleven feet). In case these differences prove 

 to be sexual, those with stout arms will probably be the females, 

 judging from analogy with the small squids nearest related.* The 

 two specimens, of which I haA'e seen the arms, both have them long 

 and slender, but in one the arms are much longer in proportion to 

 the body than in the other, and there are marked differences in the 

 denticulation of the suckers of the short arms. These differences 

 appear to indicate two species. 



A few Avords of explanation may be desirable in regard to the rel- 

 ative value of the measurements usually given, and also with reference 



* By examinations of very numerous specimens of the common squids, Ommastrephes 

 illecebrosa and Loligo PeaKi, I have satisfied myself that the females of both differ 

 from the males by having the haad. tjie siphon, the arms, and the suckers relatively 

 larger and stronger than in the males. In comparing specimens of the two sexes 

 having the body and fins of the same length, this difference is very evident. The 

 large suckers of the tentacular arras show this increased size in a very marked degree. 

 The short arms show a greater increase in diameter than in length. In my former 

 article, by an unfortunate error, the increase in size of these parts was inadvertently 

 said to be in the male. In these common squids I have found scarcely any variation 

 i n the relative size and form of the caudal fins, when adult. 



