MOLLUSCS. 



371 



by Victor Hugo in his "Toilers of the Sea"; but, after so many have shown the falsity 

 of this creation, it is only necessary to briefly refer to the wonderful composite. The 

 French name for these animals (poulpe) is but little different from the term polyp ; an 

 encyclopedia was consulted for both words, and the information obtained combined, and 

 then, for a name, the term Cephaloptera (the true devil-fish, one of the rays) was stolen, 

 and the whole set forth in the most vigorous language ; a description of the appearance 

 and habits of an animal which never existed, and which never will. The Octopi some- 

 times reach a large size, O. vuglaris of the West Indies and the Mediterranean reaching 

 a length of nine feet and a weight of sixty-eight pounds, while the 0. pimctatus of our 

 Pacific coast " reaches a length of sixteen feet, or a i-adial spread of nearly twenty-eight 

 feet," the body in such a specimen being about six inches in diameter and a foot in length. 

 There is no satisfactory evidence that any species of Octopus has ever intentionally at- 

 tacked a human being, or that any one has been seriously injured by them. In habits 

 they are timorous, hiding among rocks and feeding on crabs and molluscs. In their 

 nests will frequently be found bushels of clam shells, which tell the tale of their feasts. 



Some fifty species of this genus have been described from the whole world, and 

 within the past few years sev- 

 eral have been ascertained to 

 exist on or near the New Eng- 

 land shores ; but of these, with 

 the exception of 0. bairdii, a 

 widely distributed form, speci- 

 mens are as yet rare. The 

 characters which separate Oc- 

 topus from the other genera of 

 the family are a small rounded 

 body without fins, two rows of 

 sessile suckers on each of the 

 long and slender arms; the 

 right arm of the third pair is 

 hectocotylized in the male. 



The best known species is 

 0. vulgaris, which has often 

 been studied by European nat- 

 uralists, and which plays an 

 important* part in the food 

 supply of the countries around 

 the Meditei-ranean. They are 

 eaten especially during Lent, 

 the traditions and decisions of 

 the mother church not recog- 

 nizing their meat as flesh, but 

 rather as fisli. 



Professor Verrill thus de- 

 scribes the habits of our Octopus bairdii, specimens of which he kept in confinement 

 for several days. " When at rest it remained at the bottom of the vessel, adhering 

 firmly by some of the basal suckers of its arms, while the outer portions of the arms 

 were curled back in various positions; the body was held in a nearly horizontal posi- 



FlG. 489. — Dorsal and side views of Octopus bairdii ; the upper figure 

 stows on the right side an hectocotylized arm. 



