THE NAUTILUS. 59 



NOTES. 



Those interested in that most fascinating group, the Cephalopods, 

 are quite likely to overlook a recent interesting contribution to our 

 knowledge of the natural history of two of the larger species of 

 cuttlefish and squid. The reference is to a chapter called (some- 

 what misleadingly since largely occupied with an account of the 

 Californian octopus Polyjms punctatits) " Ten Armed Game," occu- 

 pying pp. 49-64 in Charles F. Holder's book " Big Game At Sea" 

 (The Outing Publishing Co., 1908). 



The book is an account of sporting experiences written for sports- 

 men and by no means pretends to be scientific, but bears internal 

 evidence that the author is quite aware not only of the difference be- 

 tween imagination and testimony to fact, but of the distinction be- 

 tween first and second-hand testimony. In short, one judges that 

 he has actually seen and done just about what he says he has — 

 though he does not purport to state with the accuracy of a trained 

 naturalist — and if so he has had experiences with giant forms of 

 cephalopods most rare to men sufficiently educated to put them 

 before the public. 



There are three excellent full-page photographs, two of " giant 

 octopi " from California (one "fifteen feet across" — i. e., tip to tip 

 of spread tentacles — the other, size not given, said in text to grow to 

 twenty-five or thirty feet), and one of a 'Marge squid caught at 

 Avalon, Santa Catalina Ids.," by the author. The latter picture is 

 extraordinary if not absolutely unique. It does not look " faked," 

 unless perhaps about the eye, and the animal appears fresh if not 

 actually alive, while the detail is clear. Unfortunately no measure- 

 ments are given, nor is there any object in the picture to serve as a 

 scale, while the text is annoyingly ambiguous. The author states 

 that the length of the largest squid actually handled and measured 

 by hira was fifty feet (of which the long pair of tentacles made 

 thirty), but rather implies that this was a Newfoundland specimen, 

 presumably of Arckiteuthis princeps which Verrill has so elucidated. 



Squids ranging from seven to eight feet in length are stated to be 

 common on the California coast, where they may be watched in 

 schools from boats — one would think with some slight misgivings if 

 the boat were very small. Probably the figure is of one of these, 

 though it somehow gives the impression of being larger — at all 

 events it is self-evideiitly not an Arckiteuthis. 



