66 THE OCTOPUS. 



The habits of the Eledone, of which there is only one British 

 species, E. cifrosa, are the same as those of Octopus vulgaris, 

 from which it chiefly differs in having only one row of suckers 

 instead of two along the under surface of its arms. Individuals 

 of this species have occasionally deposited a few eggs in the 

 Brighton Aquarium; but these have not, hitherto, arrived at 

 maturity. They are considerably larger than those of the octopus, 

 and not so numerous. The eledone is not so hardy as its relative, 

 and, in captivity, the female generally dies in spawning. 



It is impossible for any student or observer of these animals to 

 avoid recognition of Aristotle's wonderfully intimate knowledge of 

 their life-history, embryology, sexual conditions, and anatomy. 

 When I first saw the octopus guarding her eggs the thought im- 

 mediately rose in my mind, — "Aristotle must have had an 

 aquarium !" He might have learned by observations at the sea- 

 side, on the coast of the Mediterranean, the mode of progress 

 of the octopus when swimming and crawling, its change of colour 

 when excited, the form of its eggs, &c., which he has correctly 

 described; but it is impossible that he could have so exactly 

 designated the duration of the existence of the embryo in the 

 egg without having had opportunities of noticing the date of its 

 extrusion, and that of the escape of the young octopods by the 

 rupture of the envelope. His mention of the remarkable sexual 

 development of one of the arms, its use in the impregnation of 

 the ova, their apparent incubation by the mother, and her inces- 

 sant attention to her charge, also indicates that, during the inter- 

 vening time, the male and the brooding female were continually 

 under his inspection. We are therefore led to the conclusion that 

 the marine aquarium, in some form, is one of the things that are 

 not " new under the sun." 



