74 THE OCTOPUS, 



seaweeds, reeds, and other bodies which may be found on the 

 shore, and even around sticks and faggots placed there for the 

 purpose of entrapping her. *' She does not lay them all at once," 

 he says, " but at several intervals, the operation lasting fifteen 

 days ; and after the oviposit is completed she sheds her ink upon 

 them, which turns them from white to black, and causes them to 

 increase in bulk." He also avers that she hatches them in the 

 place where she has deposited them, and is often to be seen with 

 her body resting on the ground, and covering them. I do not 

 think that the dark hue of the membranous integuments of the 

 eggs, and of their pedicle, or foot-stalk, is in any way attributable 

 to their being stained by the animal's inky secretion, although I 

 have frequently seen masses of these eggs the integument of which 

 was not black, but perfectly colourless and pellucid. That the 

 mother broods over them, and protects them till they are hatched, 

 is quite in accordance with the observed habits of the octopus, 

 and is, therefore, not improbable. But, as with the octopus, I am 

 satisfied that no incubation takes place. 



At intervals, for many years past, I have found the eggs of the 

 Sepia and Loiigo in early stages of their development, and have 

 hatched them out, without any assistance from their parent, by 

 merely suspending them in sea-vv^ater in a tank or tub, and 

 changing the water frequently. The same also has been fre- 

 quently done at the Brighton Aquarium. This having been 

 proved and demonstrated by actual experiment, it is unnecessary 

 to fortify facts by reasoning. But I have seen a branch of a tree 

 or shrub, measuring more than two feet in height from the base 

 of the broken stem to the upper part of its branches, and fourteen 

 inches from side to side across the tips of the twigs, covered with 

 the eggs of Sepia in single rows along them. I cannot of course, 

 be certain that these were all laid by one female, but it is evident 

 that one could not cover so great an area continuously as an 

 incubator, and that, if it were possible, she would subject herself 

 to unnecessary toil in so doing, seeing that they were all hatched 



