400 



MOLLUSCA. 







THE ARGOXALT KtTlUED WITHIX ITS SHELL. 



to iT'-'i" time to liido themselves in tlir iini.l. Tliose in the cages of Madame Power, after the 

 ink-liiiLj was enipticvl, woiiM, if still pursued, spirt water from the funnel, then shrink witliin the 

 slioll, covered with the sails. A\'hen calm and quiet, and unconscious of heing observed, they 



would exhibit their many beauties, rowing 

 along with their arms, their full sails tinged 

 with elegant colors, resting their extremi- 

 ties on the two sides of the shell, or em- 

 bracing it with them. AVhen pressed by 

 hunger they would come almost to the sur- 

 face, and when Madame Power offered 

 them food, they would snatch it out of her 

 hands and greedily devour it. The eggs 

 ^p are like millet-seeds, perfectly transparent, 

 attached by filaments of brilliant gluten to 

 a conmion stem of the same. Three days 

 after the eggs had been discovered, the 

 little poulpes were observed in the shell of 

 the parent, without any shell, like small 

 worms. Soon after they began to show 

 buds with two rows of points on them, the 

 rudiments of the arms and suckers ; the sail arms appeared first by several days. On the sixth 

 day the first vestige of a shell was seen, very thin and flexible. The eggs are found in the in- 

 terior of the spire of the parent, the young between the roof of the spire and the mantle; the 

 infant shell seems to be first deposited in the end of its parent's spire, whose form it thus 

 assumes ; but after a while it carries on the process without aid. Two or three eggs are de- 

 veloped at a time; when the young are about three-quarters of an inch in length, they in- 

 close themselves in the spire of the parent, where they remain four days to acquire the shell ; 

 three days iilorc they remain under the body of the old one, and are then ejected. 



It is a very curious fact that all the argonauts hitherto found are I'emales, whence it is sup- 

 posed that the males are of a difterent form, and without shells. It has been, indeed, suggested 

 that the Hcctocotylcit, hitherto regarded as parasitic worms, are really male argonauts. 



Four species of argonaut are known, all. however, closely resembling this which we have de- 

 scribed: they inhabit the open sea throughout the warm parts of the globe. Captain King 

 took several from the stomach of a dolphin caught eio;hteen hundred miles from land. 



Genus OCTOWii: Octopus. — This includes the Eight-armed Cuttle-Fish, 0. vulgaris, mx- 

 ciently called Pobipus, which has been abbreviated into the popular title Poulpe. It has no shell, 

 and no skeleton, but has two conical pieces of horny substance imbedded in the back, one on 

 each side. The body, wduch has a globular form, is a soft, jelly-like substance, covered with a 

 thick, dark-colored, leathery skin. The arms or legs are eight in number, and are very long, 

 somethnes having an expanse of five feet; but even in a specimen of this size, the head and body 

 would not be over a foot long. The animal moves with its head either up or down ; when it 

 walks on the ground or on the bottom of the sea, it is in the latter position, (^^ee p. 498.) The 

 arms are each furnished with one hundred and twenty pairs of sucking-cups, making nearly two 

 thousand in all; by means of these they are able to maintain a powerful grasp upon their prey; 

 indeed the arms may sooner be wrenched oflf than forced to loose their hold. If, however, they 

 are thus torn asunder, they arc soon replaced by spontaneous (growth. The arms of this species 

 are esteemed good food by some of the people around the Mediterranean, where it is common. 



The eye of the cuttle-fish is large and exceedingly keen-siirhted; the whole body of the crea- 

 ture is phosphorescent in the dark, and the eyes shine like those of a cat. The mouth is 

 placed in the space inclosed by the arms ; it consi^ts of a thick circular lip around an orifice ; be- 

 neath this lip, and partially appearing through the orifice, is a beak like that of a parrot, except- 

 ing that the short mandible is the uppermost ; these mandibles do not cover bone, but their 

 interior is filled with a fibrous substance of great strength and solidity. The muscles in which 



