A HEAD-FOOTED NEST-BUILDER. 



205 



growth of conferva (water plants), wliicli I have found 

 rapidly overspread those removed from her. 



" Week after week she continued to attend on them 

 with the most assiduous care, seldom leaving them 

 for an instant except to take food, which she could 

 not otherwise procure, but which hav- 

 ing secured she immediately returned. 



" The young octopus fresh from 

 the egg is about the size of a large 

 flea, and when irritated is much the 

 same color. It is very different in 

 appearance from an adult individual 

 of the same species ; the arms, which 

 will be four or five times the length 

 of the body when the oc- 

 topus is fully grown, ap- 

 pear only as little conical 

 projections, having points 

 of hair-like fineness, and 

 arranged in the form of an 

 eight-rayed coronet around 

 the head. 



" At this early stage of 

 its existence the young oc- 

 topus seeks and enjoys the 

 light, which it will later in 

 life carefully shun. It 

 manifests no desire to hide 

 itself in crevices and recesses as the adult does, but 

 swims freely about in the' water, often close to tbe 

 surface, propelling itself backward by a series of 



Living hydra. 



