SQUIDS, CUTTLE-FISH, AND THEIR ALLIES 157 
to thrive and multiply at an enormous rate, 
for each female produces about fifty thousand 
eggs during the two or three days she is laying. 
The eggs are quite small and measure about 
an eighth of an inch in length, each one being 
fixed along and around a central stalk, like 
grapes growing in a bunch. 
The clusters sometimes attain to a length 
of five inches, and ns many as fifty of these 
may be produced by a single female, the size 
and number of the clusters, however, depend¬ 
ing upon the age of the animal responsible 
for their production. 
From observations made of one of these 
creatures kept in captivity, it appears that 
the mother watches vigilantly over her eggs 
during the period of about fifty days they 
take to hatch out; from time to time gather¬ 
ing them towards herself and rubbing them 
gently with her tentacles. She also occasion¬ 
ally directs a jet of water over them through 
the agency of her siphon or funnel, this being 
done to rid the ova from minute parasitic 
animalcules that are present in the water. 
The newly-hatched octopus is about the 
size of a flea, and its arms are at first little 
more than cone-like excrescences. 
The male and female octopus are very 
similar in appearance, but during the breeding 
