| PRICE SIX CENTS, 
( 82.50 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, ANT) ROCHESTER, N. Y„ FEB. 3, 1872 
TOE. XXV. NO. 5. 
WHOLE NO. 1119 
Act of Congress, in the year m by d TSTt. MooHk, in the offlee of the Libra r i an o f Congress, at Washington^ 
s row of suckers, are coiled round specter through the water. This singular 
it; the head is raised, and of the two movement is produced by a Ifou .bio ij<a- 
mly one is visible. Projecting from tion of llnid through the funnel, when the 
n. io thr. nriOoe of the funnel, through body is propelled violently m the opposite 
[Entered according to 
that these animals live chiefly on bivalves. 
The heaps of shells round their dens (which! 
are uncovered during the recess of the 
springtides at Herm) is enormous. In one 
Of these heaps Mr. MARSHALL counted more 
THE OCTOPUS VULGARIS, 
Our readers who have read \ ictor Hu- 
used as bait for conger eels, being caught in 
their turn with a piece of dog flsh, or drag¬ 
ged out of their holes at low water with a 
pole hook. 
The ancient writers were fairly acquaint¬ 
ed with the history of this animal, and its 
suckers are used as a simile iu the Odyssey. 
According to the old authors, it typified a 
flatterer, a miser, the devil, a bad woman, a 
cheat, an obstinate person and so on. Pro¬ 
verbs, epigrams and epithets were illustrat¬ 
ed by its habits, and we are further informed 
bv Mr. Jeffreys that it was represented on 
bases are connected together by a web, sur- 
rounding the mouth, which is armed with 
two horny jaws resembling strongly the 
beak of a parrot. The fleshy bodj (which 
as the animal respires resembles strongly a 
tmlpitating, half-flaccid bladder) is of a 
go’s “Toilers of the Sea,” will not soon for¬ 
get his description of the “Devil Fish; 
nor will they regret, to see in our colums a 
likeness of this “ Polypus ” of the ancients,or 
the “ Piouvre " of the Channel Islands, as it 
may now be seen in the Aquarium of the 
Crystal Palace, Loudon. The drawiugs 
were made by Mr. T. W. Wood, for the 
Field, and are reproduced by us for the bene¬ 
fit of our readers. 
In the larger figure the octopus is repre¬ 
sented at rest on the bed of the ocean; the 
eight lithe, fleshy arms, each armed with u 
On the left hand the octopus is shown 
using its tenacles in crawling at the bottom 
of the water, and the general form of the 
body and relative position of its various 
oi’gaus are well shown. 
The history of this particular species is 
given with accuracy in Mr. J. Gwtn Jeff¬ 
reys’ admirable work on “ TJritish Concho- 
logy. ” lie describes it as “ patiently 
watching its prey with its cold, grey, merci¬ 
less eyes and almost fiendish expression;” 
and confirms the observation uf Aristotle 
