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NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



are drawn close alongside and allowed to float behind, 

 where they act as the tail to a kite. Motion in the water 

 is gained by drawing in and expelling water from the loco- 

 motory tube. The octopus thus swims backward instead 

 of forward. Its food consists of crustaceans, fishes, and 

 other mollusks ; every kind of animal, in fact, which 

 comes within its reach. But it disdains carrion flesh, 

 and feeds only on living victims. The general life of the 

 octopus, as of the other cuttle-fish, is about five or six 

 years ; and it lays eggs, which are large, and generally 

 found in clusters. Fishermen call them sea-grapes. 



G. The locomotion of the devil-fish is as easy on land as 

 in the water. They have been known frequently to run 



up perpendicular 

 cliffs, two hundred 

 feet high, as easily 

 as the fly runs up a 

 wall, the machinery 

 of attachment be- 

 ing very similar. 

 They are said to 

 move as fast on 

 land as a man can 

 run, and they fre- 

 quently pursue their prey out of the sea, though on the 

 land they are far more timid than in the water. The vul- 

 nerable portion of the octopus is the neck, and fishermen 

 and others, who know their habits when attacked, always 

 strive, if possible, to seize them by the throttle-valve, when 

 they are easily killed. This is comparatively easy on land, 

 but nearly impossible in the water. 



7. The octopus grows to an immense size, when it 

 merits its name of devil-fish. Some years since one was 

 cast ashore at Newfoundland with arms fifty feet in length. 

 But the largest one of which we have an authentic account 



