A. E. Verrill — North American Cephalopods. 359 



fins ; outer part of fins translucent white ; anterior edge of mantle 

 with a white borclei'. 



Pen small and very thin, soft, and delicate. It is angularly 

 pointed or pen-shaped anteriorly, the shaft narrowing backward ; a 

 thin lanceolate expansion, or margin, extends along neai'ly the 

 posterior half (PI. XLVI, fig. 2b). 



Upper jaw with a sharp, strongly incurved beak, without a notch 

 at its base. Lower jaw with the tip of the beak strongly incurved, 

 and with a broad, but prominent, rounded lobe on the middle of its 

 cutting edges (fig. 2c). 



Odontophore with simple, acute-triangular median teeth ; inner 

 laterals simple, nearly of the same size and shape as the median, 

 except at base ; outer laterals much longer, strongly curved forward 

 (fig. 2d.) 



Length of body 25 to 40""". One of the larger males measures, in 

 alcohol, from the posterior end of the body to the dorsal edge of the 

 mantle, 21'""' ; to the free bases of the dorsal arms, 48™"' ; to the intei-- 

 val between bases of second and third pairs, 49'"'" ; to bases of ventral 

 arms, 46'""' ; to tip of dorsal arms, 48"'"' ; of second pair, 51'"'" ; of third 

 pair, 49""" ; of ventral arms, 46'"'" ; diameter of largest suckers 

 of lateral arms, 2"""; length of fin at base, 11'""'; extreme length of 

 fin, 15'5"'"'; transverse breadth of fin (lower side), 10™'"; diameter of 

 eye, 9'"'"; breadth of body, below fin, 17™"!; breadth of head, 17'"'". 



TAventy-seven specimens of this species were obtained by Mr. A. 

 Agassiz, on the " Blake," in 1 880, from six stations, ranging in depth 

 from 71 to 233 fathoms. Later in the same season, over 200 specimens 

 were secured by the writer and others of the dredging party on the 

 United States Fish Commission steamer " Fish-Hawk." It was par- 

 ticularly abundant at stations 869, 870 and 871, in about 125 to 192 

 fathoms, on the rapidly sloping outer bank, off the coast, under the 

 inner edge of the Gulf Stream, where the bottom consists of fine com- 

 pact sand, with mud and shells. Both sexes occurred in about equal 

 numbers, and also tlie young, of various sizes. It was also taken in 

 considerable numbers at stations 865 to 867, in 65 fathoms; 872 to 

 880, in 85 to 252 fathoms. It was also dredged off the mouth of 

 Chesapeake Bay, in November, by Lieut. Z. L. Tanner, on the " Fish 

 Hawk," in 18 to 57 fathoms. 



It is easily distinguished from all the species of Hossia by the larger 

 size of the suckers along the middle of the lateral arms ; by the 

 inequality of the suckers on the tentacular clubs; and by the peculiar 

 hectocotylized condition of the left dorsal arm of the male. The ex- 



