62 THE OCTOPUS. 



vitality. Seeing, at the expiration of four days, that the young 

 animals within them were as lively as ever, and progressing so 

 rapidly that their escape from the ^gg might soon be expected, I 

 had the larger tank partly emptied again, for the purpose of taking 

 from the nest any that might still be uninjured. It was found, 

 however, that those which had not been torn away by the parent 

 had been squeezed by her between herself and the rockwork, and 

 were consequently dead, only a very few showing signs of having 

 been prematurely hatched by the violent rupture of the envelope- 

 She had overlain her babies. Those which were taken from her 

 on the forty-second day from their extrusion for special inspec- 

 tion, were successfully hatched, and I do not doubt that if they 

 could have been kept clean and free from parasites this would 

 have taken place if they had been detached immediately after 

 they were laid. The young octopods made their appearance on 

 the 8th, 9th, and loth of August : the eggs had been extruded on 

 the 19th, 20th, and 21st of June, and thus, although it was 

 proved, as I expected, that the development of the embryo does 

 not depend on incubation, the accuracy of Aristotle's statement 

 that its period in the ^gg is fifty days was completely and satis- 

 factorily confirmed. 



In the first week of January, 1875, another brood of young 

 octopods was hatched in the Brighton Aquarium, and in this, as 

 in the former instance, the period of development was that 

 assigned to it by Aristotle. From observations made during the 

 previous winter I did not expect that maturity would be completed 

 within this term. Two "nestings" of octopus then occurred; and 

 after twenty days, from time to time, as opportunity offered, when 

 the mother left them for a minute in pursuit of an active crab 

 scuffling away to the further end of the tank, one of the clusters 

 of eggs was removed, and suspended in a separate cistern. The 

 half-formed embryo was visible, though motionless, within the 

 membranous envelope ; therefore it was evident that the fertilisa- 

 tion of the ova had been effected. But although the parent, in 



