THE OCTOPUS 



CHAPTER I. 



THE OCTOPUS AND ITS RELATIVES. 



It is not my intention to formally portray the anatomy of the 

 Octopus, — the nature and uses of its various organs will be 

 sufficiently indicated in the course of my remarks, — but before 

 giving an account of its life-history and habits, I will briefly 

 describe its affinities, and the position it occupies in the scale ot 

 Nature. 



One of the great primary groups or divisions of the Animal 

 Kingdom is that of the soft-bodied Mollusca; which includes 

 the cuttle, the oyster, the snail, &c. It has been separated into 

 five " classes," of which the one we have especially to notice is the 

 Cephalopoda;' or " head-footed," — the animals belonging to it 

 having their feet or the organs which correspond with the foot of 

 other molluscs, so attached to the head as to form a circle or 

 coronet round the mouth. Some of these have the foot divided 

 into eight lobes, and are therefore called the Odopoda : t others 

 have, in addition to the eight feet, lobes, or arms, two longer 

 tentacular appendages, making ten in all, and are consequently 

 called the Decapoda. 



* From the Greek words cephale, the head ; and/^^^, feet, 

 t From octo, eight ; and/^^a ipoda)^ feet. 



