THE PACIFIC OCEAN. oOo 



action of tlie sucker into the flesh of the struggling 

 victim, whereby a firm hold is obtained, and the prey 

 is dragged to the powerful beak. 



Some of these animals frequent the crevices and 

 holes of the rocks, whence they protrude their long 

 arms for the capture of prey. They form an ac- 

 ceptable article of food to the South-Sea islanders, 

 who have exercised their ingenuity in devising a 

 mode of entrapping them. The instrument employed 

 for this purpose is described as a straight piece of 

 hard wood, a foot long, round, and polished, and not 

 half an inch in diameter. Near one end of this, a 

 number of the most beautiful pieces of the cowry, or 

 tiger-shell, are fastened one over another like the 

 scales of a fish or the plates of a piece of armour, until 

 it is about the size of a turkey's egg, and resembles 

 the cowry. It is suspended in a horizontal position, 

 by a strong line, and lowered by the fisherman from 

 a small canoe, until it nearly reaches the bottom. 

 The fisherman then gently jerks the line, causing the 

 shell to move as if inhabited by an animal. The 

 Cuttle, deceived by the appearance of the supposed 

 cowry (for no bait is used), darts out one of its arms, 

 which it winds around the shell, adhering fast bv its 

 suckers. The fisherman continues jerking the line, 

 and the Cuttle strengthens its hold by aflBxing more 

 of its arms, until its adhesion is very strong, when, 

 rather than quit its prey, it permits itself to be 

 dragged from its retreat to the surface of the water, 

 and captured. ■"■ 



There are certain species of oceanic birds which 



