SPAWNING OF THE OCTOPUS. 65 



water from the out-flow pipe of the syphon. This contrast of its 

 habits in youth and age is so remarkable that when, after witness- 

 ing the gay activity of the movements of the child-octopus, I again 

 watched the furtive, skulking habits of its shrivelled-skinned father, 

 I could not help comparing the latter with the old thief-trainer in 

 ^' Oliver Twist," and wondering whether there ever could have 

 been a time in the life of Fagin the Jew when he was innocent 

 and frolicsome, and played, and leaped, and ran, and danced, and 

 revelled in the sin-exposing sunshine, ere the light of day became 

 odious to him, and he shrank from it as a danger to be dreaded, 

 and kept himself hidden in his den whilst his emissaries went out, 

 like the arms of the old octopus, in search of prey for the benefit 

 of their employer. 



I can say but little concerning the fertilisation of the eggs of 

 the octopids in a book intended for readers of all classes, but it 

 is so remarkable that this chapter would be incomplete without 

 a few words upon the subject. They are fecundated before, not 

 after, their extrusion. In the breeding season a curious alteration 

 takes place in one of the arms of the male octopus ; according 

 to Steenstrup, always the third on the right side, although it has 

 been stated that the third arm on the left is sometimes the one 

 thus affected. The limb becomes swollen, and from it is 

 developed a long, womi-like process, furnished with two longi- 

 tudinal rows of suckers, from the extremity of which extends a 

 slender, elongated filament. When its owner offers his hand in 

 marriage to a lady octopus she accepts it, and keeps if, and walks 

 away with it, for this singular outgrowth is then detached from 

 the arm of her suitor, and becomes a moving creature, having 

 separate Hfe,"' and continuing to exist for some time after being 

 transferred to her keeping. In the meanwhile the lost portion 

 of the " hectocotylized " ami of the male is gradually reproduced, 

 and in due time it assumes its fomier appearance. 



* Several specimens of the hectocotylus in this condition may be seen in the 

 Museum of Natural History, Paris. 





