WEAPONS OP ANIMALS 177 



sides. With the aid of these the octopus seizes 

 its prey, and fastens itself upon a victim with such 

 a tenacious grasp that it is almost, if not quite, 

 impossible to remove the arms without hacking 

 them away. It then tears to pieces the flesh of 

 the unfortunate captive with the aid of its powerful 

 and parrot-like beak. In large specimens each 

 grasping organ may measure as much as five feet 

 in length, and possess as many as two hundred 

 and fifty suckers. Notwithstanding its formidable 

 nature, the creature has a host of foes, many fish, 

 especially the conger eel, finding its flesh very palat- 

 able, as also do some of the whales. 



When the animal is in danger, and in order to 

 outwit its enemies, it resorts to the curious practice 

 of expelling a dark-coloured fluid or ' ink ' which 

 is contained in a special pouch, thereby discolour- 

 ing and rendering opaque the surrounding waters, 

 and enabling it to escape unobserved to some hiding- 

 place. This remarkable habit is also indulged in 

 by the squids, the sepiola, and the sepia or cuttle- 

 fish, the latter animal yielding the brown pigment 

 called ' sepia ' which is employed as a paint by 

 artists. Cuttle-fish farms have been established 

 in China for the purpose of breeding the creatures 

 and collecting the secretion which they yield, 

 the animals being kept in large tanks filled with 

 sea-water. When it is required to obtain the 

 ' sepia,' the inmates of the farm are driven one 

 by one into separate metal-lined compartments, 

 and the water is gradually drawn off so that the 

 cephalopods are ultimately left high and dry, 



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