EEE eee 
SOME NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 111 
ventricle is lozenge-shaped, and elongated in the direction of the axis of the body, but 
the two lateral angles which receive the branchial veins are not on the same plane, the 
right being most anterior. The digestive organs presented no deviation worthy of 
notice ; the anus was provided with the two small aliform valves or appendages. 
The small species of Octopus' which next comes under consideration, is, like the 
small Loligo above described, an inhabitant of the Sargasso or Gulf-weed. Two spe- 
cimens of this Cephalopod were taken on the 5th of April, and the third on the following 
day, in latitude 30° 31' north, longitude 44° 7' west. Mr. Bennett mentions them as 
‘small Sepie@”’ of a purplish colour. 
The Cephalopods of the genus Octopus are generally found near the coast, where they 
seek their prey among the rocks, creeping on their eight legs with the body carried 
above or behind the head ; they are less calculated for living in the open sea than the De- 
capods, which are provided with an additional pair of fins. That singular oceanic phe- 
nomenon, the Sargasso or Gulf-weed, serves however, in place of a shore, as a resting- 
place to the small species now under consideration, and affords food and shelter to in- 
numerable other curious Invertebrata: indeed an accurate fauna of this floating mass of 
marine vegetables would be a most interesting addition to Zoology. 
The largest of the three specimens of Octopus collected by Mr. Bennett measured 
from the extremity of the sac to the end of the longest arm exactly an inch and a half, 
the length of the sac or body being barely half an inch. The first peculiarity which may 
be noticed is in the position and attachment of the eyes, which, instead of being con- 
tained in a capsule as in the common Poulp, project uncovered from the sides of the 
head in the form of large dark-coloured spherical bodies: in this structure we are re- 
minded of the Nautilus, in which the organs of vision not only project from the sides of 
the head, but are supported on peduncles: the prominence of the eye-balls in the 
Argonauta, and still more in the Octopus hyalinus, is an approximation to the struc- 
ture just described in the present species. Those alone, who have witnessed the per- 
severing activity, power, and velocity of motion exercised by the Octopus when en- 
gaged in its destructive practices amongst a shoal of fishes, and who have seen it with 
its beak buried deep in the flesh of a victim held fast in the irresistible embrace of its 
numerous arms, in an instant simultaneously dissolve the attachment of its thousand 
suckers, and, disengaging itself from its prey, dart like an arrow from the net that has 
been cautiously moved towards it for its capture, can form an adequate idea of the 
acuteness of visual perception and powers of action with which this singular and un- 
shapely Cephalopod is endowed. 
In the present species the form of the body is ventricose, but slightly tapering to its ex- 
tremity ; the mantle is connected by a broad continuation of the integument to the back 
| Pl, XXI. figg. 12, 13. 
VOL. II.——PART II. Q 
