he plunges a long, sharp spear, with which he is provided, into each arm 

 where it joins the body. At each plunge of the spear, which paralyzes 

 the nerve, an arm becomes helpless, and in a short time the animal, 

 which but a few moments before had the power of a score of men, lies 

 in the canoe, a shapeless and helpless mass. That the Octopus is a deli- 

 cacy Professor Parker attested from experience, for during a visit 

 to Yucatan, this mollusk was served to him as a meat dish, and proved 

 to be very palatable, the flesh being firm and tender, and much resem- 

 bling chicken. The portion eaten by him was the head, with a part 

 of the arms attached. 



One of the most interesting characteristics of the Octopus and allied 

 Cephalopods is their power to change color when danger is near. These 

 changes are caused, as has been noted before, by little pigment cells just 

 beneath the skin, which expand and contract. Thus, if a person 

 is looking at an Octopus in captivity, and the animal is so placed that 

 it cannot escape, the observer will be astonished to see the body of the 

 animal assume a deep pinkish color, which in turn is succeeded by blue 

 and then by green, finally returning to pink. The body is covered with 

 these little pigment cells, the different colors pink, 

 blue, and green being so evenly distributed over the 

 surface that when each cell is expanded the whole 

 body assumes that tint. 



The Cepkalopods are broadly divided into two 

 large divisions: in one, called Dibranchiata, the 

 animal breathes by a single pair of gills, and in the 

 other, called Tetrabranchiata, the animal breathes by 

 two pairs of gills. The Nautilus is an example of 

 this latter division. The first division is separated 

 into two groups : the first, having no internal shell 

 and eight arms, hence called Octopoda; and the 

 second, with an internal shell, or pen, and ten arms, 

 and called Decapoda. In this group, eight of the 

 arms are short, like those in the Octopus, and two are 

 very long, and are retractile within pouches. The 

 ends of these tentacular arms are expanded to form club-like organs 

 which are covered with suckers on the inside. 



The squids, which are so common on the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States, are good examples of the ten-armed Cephalopods. They are 

 very numerous in numbers, and form a large part of the food of such 

 fishes as the bluefish, black bass, and striped bass, and the young are 

 frequently found in the stomach of jelly-fishes. They form the principal 



137 



The squid. Loligo 

 pealii. (Tryon.) 



