496 
MOLLUSCA. 
to gain time to hide themselves in the mud. Those in the cages of Madame Power, after the 
ink-bag was emptied, would, if still pursued, spirt water from the funnel, then shrink within the 
shell, covered with, the sails. When calm and quiet, and unconscious of being observed, they 
would exhibit their many beauties, rowing 
along with their arms, their full sails tinged 
with elegant colors, resting their extremi- 
ties on the two sides of the shell, or em- 
bracing it Avith them. When pressed by 
hunger they would come almost to the sur- 
face, and when Madame Power offered 
them food, they would snatch it out of her 
hands and greedily devour it. The eggs 
are like millet-seeds, perfectly transparent, 
attached by filaments of brilliant gluten to 
a common stem of the same. Three days 
after the eggs had been discovered, the 
little poulpes were observed in the shell of 
the parent, without any shell, like small 
worms. Soon after they began to show 
buds with two rows of points on them, the 
rudiments of the arms and suckers; the sail arms appeared first by several days. On the sixth 
day the first vestige of a shell was seen, very thin and flexible. The eggs are found in the in- 
terior of the spire of the parent, the young between the roof of the spire and the mantle ; the 
infant shell seems to be first deposited in the end of its parent's spire, whose form it thus 
assumes ; but after a while it carries on the process without aid. Two or three eggs are de- 
veloped at a time; when the young are about three-quarters of an inch in length, they in- 
close themselves in the spire of the parent, where they remain four days to acquire the shell ; 
three days more they remain under the body of the old one, and are then ejected. 
It is a very curious fact that all the argonauts hitherto found are females, whence it is sup- 
posed that the males are of a different form, and without shells. It has been, indeed, suggested 
that the Hectocotyles, hitherto regarded as parasitic worms, are really male argonauts. 
Four species of argonaut are known, all, however, closely resembling this which we have de- 
scribed: they inhabit the open sea throughout the warm parts of the globe. Captain King 
took several from the stomach of a dolphin caught eighteen hundred miles from land. 
Genus OCTOPUS : Octopus. — This includes the Eight-armed Cuttle-Fish, 0. vulgaris^ an- 
ciently called Polypus^ which has been abbreviated into the popular title Poulpe. It has no shell, 
and no skeleton, but has two conical pieces of horny substance imbedded in the back, one on 
eacii side. The body, which has a globular form, is a soft, jelly-like substance, covered with a 
thick, dark-colored, leathery skin. The arms or legs are eight in number^ and are very long, 
sometimes having an expanse of five feet ; but even in a specimen of this size, the head and body 
would not be over a foot long. The animal moves with its head either up or down ; when it 
walks on the ground or on the bottom of the sea, it is in the latter position. (See p. 498.) The 
arms are each furnished with one hundred and twenty pairs of sucking-cups, making nearly two 
thousand in all ; by means of these they are able to maintain a powerful grasp upon their prey; 
indeed the arms may sooner be wrenched off than forced to loose their hold. If, however, they 
are thus torn asunder, they are soon replaced by spontaneous growth. The arms of this species 
are esteemed good food by some of the people around the Mediterranean, where it is common. 
The eye of the cuttle-fish is large and exceedingly keen-sighted; the whole body of the crea- 
ture is phosphorescent in the dark, and the eyes shine like those of a cat. The mouth is 
placed in the space inclosed by the arms ; it consists of a thick circular lip around an orifice ; be- 
neath this lip, and partially appearing through the orifice, is a beak like that of a parrot, except- 
ing that the short mandible is the uppermost ; these mandibles do not cover bone, but their 
interior is filled with a fibrous substance of great strength and solidity. The muscles in which 
THE ARGONAUT RETIRED WITHIN ITS SHELL. 
