CURIOUS INHABITANTS OF THE GULF STREAM 
165 
AN OCTOPUS IN ONE OF THE MIAMI AQUARIUM TANKS 
The Octopus is a source of fascination to most people in spite of its repulsive appearance. The 
grotesque head is mounted on a somewhat oval body from which radiate eight arms usually united at the 
base by a membrane. The arms, or tentacles, are provided with rows of suckers with which to clasp 
and cling to its prey with uncanny strength and quickness. The Octopus has the faculty of instantly 
changing color before one’s very eyes, and is constantly doing strange and weird things, which always 
attract the attention of the passer-by. 
the plan of coloring is such as to lower, not 
raise, the visibility of the fish. Contrast, 
for instance, the color plans of the 
Rock Hind and the bizarre Rock Beauty. 
CHAMELEONS AMONG THE FISHES 
These groupers, rock fishes, and hinds, 
furthermore, have the power of under¬ 
going complete color changes almost in¬ 
stantaneously. The color tone becomes 
lighter or darker and the markings be¬ 
come bold or fade and disappear. Such 
color changes can be Seen to advantage 
in individuals kept in an aquarium. 
There can be no doubt that in the fishes’ 
natural environment they adapt it to the 
bottom it is swimming over, and, further, 
that inconspicuousness may aid in its 
getting a full meal at the expense of its 
smaller associates. 
There is a related fish which has a 
color pattern almost exactly like that of 
the Rock Hind, namely, the Spotted 
Hind. The principal technical difference 
between the two is that one has minute 
scales on its maxillary and the other has 
not—a characteristic about as obvious to 
the layman as what the fish is thinking 
about. The Spotted Hind’s squarish tail 
fin, with a broad, blackish border, alfords an 
amateurish, but simpler, way of telling it. 
The fish life of warm shores is one of 
contrasts. In contrast to the big-mouthed 
sea basses, there are species, usually slug¬ 
gish, which have very small mouths, de¬ 
pending for their subsistence on the great 
abundance of small sea animals found 
about tropical reefs and ledges, or sea¬ 
weeds. To capture such small creatures 
does not require great agility. 
The sort of life they lead has probably 
been taken up gradually, through long 
periods of time, and many of them have 
meanwhile acquired remarkable and 
sometimes quite unfishlike characters of 
form and structure. None is stranger 
than the little Sea Horses (Color Plate, 
page 178), with body encased in rings of 
