64 THE OCTOPUS. 



cernlble. The fine ends of the arms might sometimes be seen 

 gently winding amongst the clusters of eggs as tenderly and 

 lovingly as a father's fingers through the tresses of a darling 

 child, but there was no evident nursing in this case. 



An octopus about to spawn, like some birds in search of a 

 nesting-place, seeks the most retired nook she can find in which 

 to deposit her eggs. The elasticity of her body enables her to 

 squeeze herself through a very small orifice ; and, therefore, the 

 narrower the entry to her den the more suitable is it for her pur- 

 pose, because the better adapted for defence against enemies and 

 intruders. A curious instance of the choice of such a nesting- 

 place came under my notice in March, 1874. Some fishermen, 

 whilst dredging in the Channel off Brighton, brought up an earthen 

 jar or carboy, which would hold about two gallons. It was covered 

 with serpulas, &c., and was forthwith taken to the Aquarium. 

 There it was discovered that it contained an octopus and her 

 eggs. The neck of the jar was only two inches in diameter : the 

 octopus was a fully-grown specimen. 



The young octopus fresh from the tg% is of about the size of a 

 large flea, and when irritated is of nearly the same colour. It is 

 very different in appearance from an adult individual of the same 

 species. At first sight it is more like a sepia, without its tentacles, 

 than an octopus. The arms, which will afterwards be four or five 

 times the length of its body, are so rudimentary as to be even 

 shorter in proportion than the pedal arms of the cuttle-fish, and 

 appear only as little conical excrescences, having points of hair- 

 like fineness, and arranged in the form of an eight-rayed coronet 

 around the head. 



At this early stage of its existence the young octopus seeks and 

 enjoys the light which it will, later in life, carefully shun. It 

 manifests no desire to hide itself in crevices and recesses, as the 

 adult does, but swms freely about in the water, often close to 

 the surface, propeUing itself backward by a series of little jerks 

 caused by each stroke of the force pump, which expels a jet of 



