EXEX1ES OF THE OCTOPUS. 163 



" This reparative power is possessed by some other animals, of which the Star-fishes and Crustacea 

 are the most familiar instances, such as the common ' Five-finger' (Uraster), and the Brittle-star 

 (Ophiocoma), both of which can throw off their limbs and grow them again ; the act is voluntary, and 

 the dismemberment complete. The only joint from which new growth can start in the Crustacea is 

 that connected with the body. The whole limb must be got rid of. The Octopus, on the contrary, is 

 incapable of volimtaiy dismemberment, but has the faculty of reproducing, as an out-growth from the 

 old stump, any portion of an arm (or leg) which may have been lost by misadventure. I say ' arm 

 or leg/ for one hardly knows which these eight appendages should be called. 



" There lingers still among the fishermen of the Mediterranean a very ancient belief that the 

 Octopus, when pushed by hunger, will gnaw and devour portions of its own arm. Aristotle knew 

 of this, and positively contradicted it ; but a fallacy once planted is hard to eradicate. The fact 

 is, that the larger predatory fishes regard the Octopus as very acceptable food, and there is no 

 better bait for many of them than a portion of one of its arms. Some of the Cetacea also are very 

 fond of them, and whalers have often reported that when a 'fish,' as they call it, is struck, it disgorges 

 the contents of its stomach, amongst which they have noticed parts of the arms of Cuttle-fishes, which, 

 judging from the size of their limbs, must have been very large indeed. The food of the Sperm Whalf 

 consists largely of the gregarious Squids, and the presence in ' spermaceti ' of their undigested beaks 

 is accepted as a test of its being genuine. That old fish-reptile, the Ichthyosaurus, also preyed upon 

 them ; and portions of the horny rings of their suckers were discovered in its coprolites by Dean 

 Buckland. 



" Amongst the worst enemies of the Octopus in British waters is the Conger. They are both 

 rock-dwellers, and if the voracious fish come upon his cephalopod neighbour unseen, he makes 

 a meal of him, or, failing to drag him from his hold, bites off as much of one or two of 

 his arms as he can conveniently obtain. The Conger, therefore, is generally the author of tie 

 injury which the Octopus has been unfairly accused of inflicting on itself. The Curator of 

 the Havre Aquarium describes an attack by Congers on an Octopus which he had thrown into 

 their tank. As soon as the latter touched the bottom it examined every corner of the stone- 

 work. The moment it perceived a Conger it seemed to feel instinctively the danger which 

 menaced it, and endeavoured to conceal its presence by stretching itself along a rock, the colour of 

 which it immediately assumed. Finding this useless, and seeing that it was discovered, it changed its 

 tactics, and shot backwards, in quick retreat, leaving behind it a long black trail of turbid water, 

 formed by the discharge of its ink. Then it fixed itself to a rock, with all its arms surrounding and 

 protecting its body, and presenting on all exposed sides a surface furnished with suckers. In this 

 position it awaited the attack of its enemies. A Conger approached, searched with its snout for a 

 vulnerable place, and having found one, seized with its teeth a mouthful of the living flesh. Then, 

 straightening itself out in the water, it turned round and round with giddy rapidity, until the arm 

 was, with a violent wrench, torn away from the body of the victim. Each bite of the Conger cost the 

 unfortunate creature a limb, and, at length, nothing remained but its dismembered body, which was 

 finally devoured, some Dog fishes, attracted by the fray, partaking of the feast. 



" An Octopus was once placed in the Brighton Aquarium with some ' Nursehound?,' or 

 'Larger spotted Dog-fishes' (Scyllium stellare) ; for a while, they seemed to dwell together as peaceably 

 as the ' happy family' of animals that used to be exhibited in a travelling cage at the foot of Waterloo 

 Bridge, the Octopus usually remaining within the 'Cottage-by-the-sea' which he had built for himself 

 in the form of a grotto of living oysters, and the Dog-fish apparently taking no notice of him; But 

 one fatal day the 'Devil-fish' was missing, and it was seen that one of the 'companions of his 

 solitude' was inordinately distended. A thrill of horror ran through the corridors. There was 

 suspicion of crime and dire disaster. The corpulent Nursehound was taken into custody, lynched 

 and disembowelled, and his giiilt made manifest. For there, within his capacious stomach, unmutilated 

 and entire, lay the poor Octopus who had delighted thousands during the Christmas holidays. It 

 had been swallowed whole, and very recently, but life was extinct."* 



* "The Octopus ; or, the Devil-fish of Fiction and of Fact," by Hemy Lee, F.L.S. For most of the facts and state- 

 ments here recorded concerning the Octopus, the writer is indebted to his friend Mr. Henry Lee. H. W. 



