Chap. 48.] THE VAEIOUS KINDS OF POLYPI. 
419 
than true that its arms shoot forth again, like the tail in the 
colotus^^ and the lizard.^*^ 
CHAP. 47. THE NAUTILUS, OK SAILING POLYPUS. 
Among the most remarkable curiosities is the animal which 
has the name^® of nautilus, or, as some people call it, the 
pompilos. Lying with the head upwards, it rises to the surface 
of the water, raising itself little by little, while, by means of 
a certain conduit in its body, it discharges all the water, and 
this being got rid of like so much bilge- water as it were, it 
finds no difficulty in sailing along. Then, extending back- 
wards its two front arms, it stretches out between them a 
membrane^^ of marvellous thinness, which acts as a sail 
spread out to the wind, while with the rest of its arms it 
paddles along below, steering itself with its tail in the middle, 
which acts as a rudder. Thus does it make its way along the 
deep, mimicking the appearance of a light Liburnian^^ bark ; 
while, if anything chances to cause it alarm, in an instant it 
draws in the water, and sinks to the bottom. 
CHAP. 48. (30.) — THE TAEIOUS KINDS OF POLYPI ; THEIR 
SHEEWDNESS. 
Eelonging to the genus of polypi is the animal known as the 
36 Cuvier says, that Pliny states, in B. xxix. c. 28, that the colotis, or 
colotes of the Greeks, is the same as their ascalabotes, the " stellio" of the 
Latins, This stellio is the same as the gecko" of the moderns, and the 
species known in Italy and Greece is the same as the wall gecko" of the 
French, or the tarente of the Provencals. From what Pliny says here 
about its tail, it would appear to have been a lizard ; but its identity 
with the stellio, Cuvier says, is very doubtful. It will be mentioned more 
at length in B. xi. c. 31. 
=^7 It is very true, Cuvier says, that the tail of the gecko and lizard will 
grow again after it has been cut off, but without vertebrae. As to the 
arms of the polypus, he says, it is very possible, seeing that the horns of 
the snail, which belongs to the same family, will grow again. 
38 This account of the nautilus, Cuvier says, the Argonauta argo of 
Linnaeus, wonderful as it may appear, has been often confirmed by modern 
observation. 
39 This, Cuvier says, is not a membrane between the two feet or tenta- 
cles, but a distinct membranous delatation of the extremity of each of those 
two organs. 
^0 These vessels have been already remarked upon in Note 33 to c. 5 of 
the present Book. 
*i Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 61. 
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