JVBIV LIMBS FOR OLD ONES. 53 



The Curator of the Havre Aquarium describes an attack by- 

 congers on an octopus which he had thrown into their tank. As 

 soon as the latter touched the bottom it examined every corner of 

 the stone-work. The moment it perceived a conger it seemed to 

 feel instinctively the danger which menaced it, and endeavoured 

 to conceal its presence by stretching itself along a rock, the colour 

 of which it immediately assumed. Finding this useless, and seeing 

 that it was discovered, it changed its tactics, and shot backward, 

 in quick retreat, leaving behind it a long black trail of turbid 

 water, formed by the discharge of its ink. Then it fixed itself to 

 a rock, with all its arms surrounding and protecting its body, and 

 presenting on all exposed sides a surface furnished with suckers. 

 In this position it awaited the attack of its enemies. A conger 

 approached, searched with its snout for a vulnerable place, and, 

 having found one, seized with its teeth a mouthful of the living 

 flesh. Then, straightening itself out in the water, it turned round 

 and round with giddy rapidity, until the arm was, with a violent 

 wrench, torn away from the body of the victim. Each bite of a 

 conger cost the unfortunate creature a limb, and, at length, 

 nothing remained but its dismembered body, which was finally 

 devoured ; — some dog-fishes, attracted by the fray, partaking of 

 the feast. 



I have always refused to permit so shocking a scene to be 

 repeated at the Brighton Aquarium. The Havre experiment has 

 taught us all that is to be learned from it concerning the mode of 

 attack of the conger, and the octopod's strategy of defence. That 

 the flesh of the latter is a favourite food of congers, I have re- 

 peatedly proved by watching the eagerness with which they will 

 rend limb from limb, and devour the body of a dead octopus to 

 which I sometimes treat them after removing such portions as 

 may be required for dissection and preservation. 



An octopus is sometimes, though rarely, severely injured in 

 battle by one of its own species. On one occasion when a newly- 

 arrived specimen was put in a tank with others which had dwelt 



