284 SOFT-BODIED ANIMALS— THE MOLLUSKS 



which is removed and placed in the cages of captive birds, such as ca- 

 naries, as a source of calcium. 



One of the most feared creatures of the South Pacific is the giant 

 octopus, or devil fish, that has been known, on rare occasions, to ensnare 

 divers with its long snake-like tentacles. It does not compare with the 

 giant squid in size, but some have been found with tentacles that could 

 be spread in a radius of fifteen feet from a body as big as a washtub. 

 The cold, wicked looking eyes ; the soft, slimy body ; and the long, wig- 



Courtesy General Biological Supply House 



Fig. 19.12. Shells of the chambered nautilus. At top, a whole shell; at bottom, a 



shell that has been sawed open to show the chambers. The animal moves forward 



each season making a new and larger chamber. 



gling tentacles combine to make this one of the most repulsive of all 

 animals, yet the great majority of them are far too small to do man any 

 bodily harm and they furnish us an important source of food. An aver- 

 age sized octopus will have a body no bigger than a grapefruit and, in 

 the Mediterranean countries, South America, the South Pacific, and the 

 Orient, boiled octopus is a much better known and more frequently eaten 

 dish than our boiled lobster. 



The octopus is very much like the squid in its body structure, but it 

 does not have a pen for support and when taken out of the water its body 



