OBSERVATIONS ON THE HABITS OF MARINE 



ANIMALS. 



BY JAMES HORN ELL. 



Series I. — a. The Octopus in captivity (cleaning of Suckers, 



strength and feeding habits), 

 b. Hunting-craft of the John Dory. 



I. The Octopus in Captivity. 



PERHAPS of no other animal have more fabulous travellers' 

 tales been recounted than of this creature. Some have sought 

 to identify it with the terrible Kraken — that superlative sea-terror 

 of our viking ancestors. Others have figured it as the bona-fide 

 sea-serpent, and then who is not familiar with the wonderful -cuts 

 in the old natural history books of the " colossal polypus " seizing 

 a great three-masted ship and dragging it down to the depths. 



In more recent years, Victor Hugo has, with poet's license, 

 painted in sensationally gruesome detail, such an exaggerated and 

 terrifying picture of the Octopus, that the true details of its really 

 grim quaintness are apt to fall flat and appear trivial to those 

 whose knowledge extends no further than the " Toilers of the Sea." 



Quaint creatures indeed ! Five of them are now restlessly 

 crawling, swimming and climbing about the rockwork of a tank 

 close at hand as I write. There, see the large fellow in the centre 

 perched monkey-like on a boulder — what is his object in making 

 an animated ' Catherine wheel ' of himself as he is doing ? . See how 

 the pliant arms writhe and coil, in and out, over and under, inter- 

 mingled, and upon themselves in supple twists and turns, as of a 

 heap of lampreys in a bowl. See now the motion slackens and 

 slowly the animal reverts to his sly slowly moving normal state. 

 Frequently have I seen this performance, and it always appeared 

 to give considerable satisfaction to the animal. 



For a little while I was puzzled to account for such acrobatic 

 movements, bat soon I began to notice that these were accompanied 

 by a throwing off of many disc-shaped cast-skins of suckers. The 

 inference became plain that the process was a cleansing one, 



