octopus. 209 



O. vulgaris, Lamarck. 



Plate NNN. fig. 2. 



Sepia octopodia, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 1*2, vol. i. p. 1095. 



„ octopus, Bosc. Vers. vol. i. p. 47. — Brug. Encycl. Meth. pi. 76, f. 1-4. 

 Polypus octojwdia, Leach, Zool. Misc. vol. iii. 139; Journ. de Phys. vol. lxxxvi. 

 p. 394. — Savigny, Desc. de l'Egypte. Hist. Nat. vol. ii. 

 pi. 1, f. 1. 

 Octopus vulgaris, Lam. Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. i. p. 18; An. sans 



Vert. vol. vii. p. 657. — Carus, Nov. Act. Ac. Nat. Cur. 



vol. xii. pt. 1, pi. 31, p. 319 D'Orbig. Tabl. des Ceph. 



p. 52, No. 1. — Blainville, Diet, des Sc. Nat. vol. xlii. 



p. 188. — Risso, Hist. Nat. Eur. Mer. vol. iv. p. 3. — Delle 



Chiaje, Mem. vol. i. p. 2 t. 1. — Sowerby, Brit. Misc. 



p. 101, pi. 48. — Fleming, Brit. An. p. 253. — Philippi, 



Enum. Moll. Sic. vol. i. p. 240. — Ferus. and D'Orbig. 



Ceph. Acet. pi. 2, 3, 3 bis, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 29, p. 27. 



— D'Orbig. Moll, des Canaries, p. 14 ; Moll. Viv. et Foss. 



vol. i. p. 169, pi. 1, f. 7-9. — Verany, Moll. Med. pt. 1, 



p. 16, pi. 8. 



Although this cuttle-fish is commonly believed to be not 

 scarce, there is reason to regard it as one of the rarer Bri- 

 tish species. We have never had the good fortune to take 

 it alive in the British seas, and but few of our zoologists 

 appear to have met with it. The only drawing taken 

 from a living British example, with which we are ac- 

 quainted, is that made so long ago as 1805, by Mr. James 

 Sowerby. Fortunately this, although there are some 

 important details not indicated, is very good, and rather 

 than give a figure from a specimen preserved in spirits, we 

 reproduce it here. The best foreign figures are the ad- 

 mirable lithographs of Verany. 



The body of the Octopus vulgaris is oval, and somewhat 

 rounded, of small size as compared with the head and 

 arms, but not so small in proportion as it is in several 



VOL. IV. E E 



