132 



A LARGE SQUID AT REDCAR. 



W. E. HOYLE, D.Sc, 



Manchester. 



The Squid, of which a photograph is here reproduced,* was 

 stranded at Redcar on the 19th of December last. Un- 

 fortunately it was allowed to 

 decompose, and was buried 

 before any naturalist had an 

 opportunity of examining it. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. 

 Robinson, however, the re- 

 mains were exhumed, and a 

 portion of one of the tentacles 

 with most of its suckers in- 

 tact, the buccal mass with the 

 mandibles, and some fragments 

 of the pen rendered it possible 

 to identify the animal as a 

 specimen of Sthenoteuthis 

 pteropus (Steenstrup). This 

 is one of the large oceanic 

 squids, which are never seen 

 on shore except when stranded 

 after death. It has, however, 

 a wide area of distribution, 

 having been recorded from the 

 Atlantic Ocean, from the 

 Scandinavian coast, and from 

 the Mediterranean. Its occur- 

 rence on the English coast has 

 been recorded by Goodrich 

 (Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc., n.s., 

 vol. ii., pp. 314-321, 1892), 

 who describes, with illustra- 

 tions, a specimen from Sal- 

 combe, South Devon, and 

 mentions two others in the 

 British Museum from Scar- 

 borough and the North Sea 

 respectively. An example from 

 Ireland is chronicled and 

 figured by Nichols {Irish Nat., vol. xiv., pp. 52-57, 1905), An 

 * We are indebted to Dr. Robinson for the photograph. — Ed. 



Naturalist, 



