398 A. E. Verrill — North jhneriean Cephalopods. 



foundland in different years. This time may, perhaps, be just subse- 

 quent to their season for reproduction, when they would be so much 

 weakened as to be more easily- overpowered by parasites, disease, or 

 other unfavorable conditions. 



I have heard of no authentic instances* of the occurrence of speci- 

 mens of this species since the finding of the small specimen (No. 24), 

 in April, 1880. [See p. 259.] 



Large Species from Nero Zealand. 

 Architeuthis Mouchezi ? (See p. 243.) 



Mr. T. W. Kirk, in the Transactions of the Wellington Philoso))h- 

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

 occurrence of five specimens of " giant cuttle-fish " on the coast of 

 New Zealand : 



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

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

 to Mr. Kirk by JVIr. iMeinertzhagen, whose account of the occurrence, 

 with a rather crude description and some measurements made by an 

 eve-witness, Mr. Kirk has printed. He gives no description of the 

 beak, unfortunately. The dimensions given are as follows : Length 

 from tip of tail to root of arms, 10 feet 5 inches ; circumference, G feet ; 

 length of arms, 5 feet 6 inches. "The beast had eight tentacles, as 

 thick as a man's leg at the root; horrid suckers on the inside of them, 

 from the size of an ounce bullet to that of a pea at the tip ; two horrid 

 goggle eyes ; and a powerful beak between the roots of the arms. 

 His head appeared to slip in and out of a sheath. Altogether he was 

 a most repulsive looking brute." 



It is probable that this specimen had lost its two tentacular arms 

 before death, and that it was actually of the same species as the other 

 specimens recorded by Mr. Kirk. Mr. Kirk, however, seems to think 

 that the above description refers to an Octopod. 



No. 2. "The beak of number 2 was deposited in the Colonial 

 Museum by Mr. A. Hamilton. The animal was captured at Cape 

 Campbell by Mr, C. H. Robson, a member of this society, who very 

 kindly furnished me with the following information. Writing on the 

 10th of June, 1879, he says: 



* A purely fictitious and sensational account of an imaginary capture of an Archi- 

 teviMs lias been published in Lippiucott's Magazine, for Aug., 1881, p. 124, by Mr. 

 Charles F. Holder. 



