272 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



protect her eggs, instead of brooding over them in some 

 cranny of a rock, or within the recesses of a pile of shells, 

 as does her cousin the octopus. From the membranes of 

 the two flattened and expanded arms she secretes and, if 

 necessary, repairs her shell, and, by applying them closely 

 to its outer surface on each side, holds herself within it, for 

 it is not fastened to her body by any attaching muscles. 

 When disturbed or in danger she can loosen her hold, and, 

 leaving her cradle, swim away independently of it. It 

 has been said that, having once left it, she has not the 

 ability nor perhaps the sagacity to re-enter her nest, and 

 resume the guardianship of her eggs." * From my own 

 observations of the breeding habits of other octopods I 

 think this most improbable. The use and purpose of the 

 shell of the argonaut will be better understood if I briefly 

 describe what I have witnessed of the treatment of its eggs 

 by its near relative, the octopus. 



"The eggs of the octopus," as I have elsewhere said, 

 "when first laid, are small, oval, translucent granules, 

 resembling little grains of rice, not quite an eighth of an 

 inch long. They grow along and around a common stalk, 

 to which every egg is separately attached, as grapes form 

 part of a bunch. Each of the elongated bunches is affixed 

 by a glutinous secretion to the surface of a rock or stone 

 (never to seaweed, as has been erroneously stated), and 

 hangs pendant by its stalk in a long white cluster, like a 

 magnified catkin of the filbert, or, to use Aristotle's simile, 

 like the fruit of the white alder. The length and number 

 of these bunches varies according to the size and condition 

 of the parent. Those produced by a small octopus are 

 seldom more than about three inches long, and from 



1 Appendix to Sir Edward Belcher's 'Voyage of the Samarang: 

 by Mr. Arthur Adams, assistant surgeon to the expedition. 



