68 1I.M5ITS OF THK ( HI' 1 1 A I.< !'( > DA . 



water, there is no doubt, and it appeared t( me certain that it 



could, moreover, take a u-<><>d M iin by direct intr the tube or 

 siphon on the under side of its body. From the dillicultv 

 which these animals have in carrying their heads, t hey cannot 

 crawl with ease when placed on the "-round. I observed that 

 one which I kept in the cabin was slightly phosphorescent after 

 dark." Charles Darwin.* 



V. The ordinary resting-place of this hideous sea-beast (ft 

 under a laro-e stone, or in the wide cleft of a rock, where an Oc- 

 topus can creep and squeeze itself with the flatness of a saiid- 

 dal>. or the slippcriness of an eel. Its modes of locomotion are 

 curious and varied; using the eight arms as paddles, and work- 

 ing them alternately, the central disk represent in<r a boat, octopi 



row themselves along with an ease and celerity comparable to 



the many-oared caique that glides over the tranquil waters of the 

 IJosphorus; they can rnml)le at will over the sandy roadways, 

 intersecting their submarine parks, and convert injr arms into 

 leo-s. inarch on like a hu<>-e spider. Gymnasts of the highest 

 order, they clinili the slippery ledges, as Hies walk up a window- 

 pane ; attaching the countless suckers that arm the terrible limbs 

 to the face of the rocks, or to the wrack and sea-weed, thev no 

 about back downward, like marine sloths, or. clino-in<r with one 

 arm to the waving ali^e. perform series of trapeze nioveiiients 

 that Leotard ini-ht view with envy. 



I do not think, in its native element, an octopus often catches 

 prey on the ground or on the rocks, but waits for them just as 

 the spider does, only the octopus converts itself into a web. and 

 a fearful one too. Fastening one arm to a stout stalk of the 

 rreat sea-wrack. stiMenin^ out the other seven, one would ha nil v 

 know it from the wrack amongst which it is concealed. Patiently 

 he bides his time, until presently a shoal of fish come ^ailv on. 

 Two or three of them rub against the arms: fatal touch! A- 

 thon.ii-h a powerful electric shock had passed through the fish, 

 and suddenly knocked it scnselc -. 90 dies the arm of the 

 octopus paraly/e its victim; then winding a u'reat sucker-clad 

 cable round the palsied fish, draws the dainty morsel to the 



Narrative ol ' Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle," iii, p. 6, 1839. 



