xiv INTR OD UCTION, 



" to watch their habits so closely that nothing relating to then:> 

 should remain unknown." Aristotle thus accumulated a multi- 

 tude of notes and observations, many of which, though ridiculed 

 and discredited by later zoologists, were marvellously accurate ; 

 and from them constructed a work elaborate in its details, grand 

 in its conception and idea, and comprehensive as a general 

 history of the Animal Kingdom. 



Amongst the inhabitants of the sea therein described by him 

 is, as I have said, the Octopus or Polypus, and many of his state- 

 ments concerning it and its congeners have been remarkabbr 

 confirmed by recent observations. This animal has, therefore, 

 been long known to naturalists. The ancient Egyptians figured 

 it amongst their hieroglyphics;'" the Greeks and Romans were 

 well acquainted with it ; and since the time of Homer many of 

 the ancient poets and authors have mentioned it in their works. 



There is little doubt that the idea of the Lernean Hydra, whose 

 heads grew again when cut off by Hercules, originated from a 

 knowledge of the Octopus. Diodorus relates of it that it had 

 a hundred heads; Simonides says fifty; but the generally received 

 statement is that of ApoUodorus, Hyginus, &c., that it had only 

 nine. Reduce the number by one, and we have an animal with 



* An interesting proof that the ancient Egyptians were also acquainted with 

 other cephalopods has been communicated to me by Mr. Eugenius Birch, the 

 architect of the Brighton Aquarium. Whilst on a journey to Nubia, up the 

 Nile, in January, 1875, he visited the temple of Bayr-el-Bahree, Thebes (date, 

 1700 B.C.), the entrance to which had been deeply buried beneath the light, 

 wind -drifted sand accumulated during many centuries. By order of the Khedive 

 access was recently obtained to its interior by the excavation and removal of 

 this deep deposit ; and amongst the hieroglyphics on the walls were found, 

 between the zig-zag horizontal lines which represent water, figures of various 

 fishes so accurately portrayed as to be easily identified. With them was the 

 outline of a squid 14 inches long. As this temple is 500 miles from the 

 delta of the Nile it is remarkable that nearly all the fishes there represented are 

 of marine species. 



