.398 
.1. E. VerriU — North American. Cephalopoda. 
foundland in different years. This time may, perhaps, he 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 f rom New Zealand. 
Architeuthis Mouchezi ? (See p. 243.) 
Mr. T. W. Kirk, in the Transactions of the Wellington Philosoph- 
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 Waimarama, east 
coast, in September, 1870. Of this the beak was preserved and sent 
to Mr. Kirk by Mr. Meinertzhagen, 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, 6 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 
goggleeyes; and a powerful beak between the roots of the arms. 
Ilis 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. II. Hobson, a member of this society, who very 
kindly furnished me with the following information. Writing on the 
19th of June, 1879, he says: 
* A purely fictitious and sensational account of an imaginary capture of an Archi- 
teuthis has been published in Lippincott's Magazine, for Aug., 1881, p. 124. by Mr. 
Charles^F. Holder. 
