No. 5 (192I) 



MADRAS AQUARIUxM 



89 



The Octopus belongs to the great group of the MoUusca, and 

 is closely akin to the Pearly Nautilus whose brown streaked 

 chambered shells are not uncommonly washed ashore on our 

 coasts after storms. But the octopus long ages ago discarded 



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the clumsy shell that set narrow limits to his restlessness, and 

 since then trusts to the sharpness of his eyes and his wits to escape 

 from his larger enemies to whom he is a luscious tit-bit. As 

 H. G. Wells has cleverly shown, evolution might easily have 

 given an octopus-like form to tlio dominant race on earth. And 



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