The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-16 00:00:00

THE OCTOPUS SEIZING ITS PREY.

Mr. Henry Les, F.L. 8., writes in Land and Wafer
"Desiring to have a better view than I had previously
been able to obtain of what follows the seisms of a
crab by an octopus, I recently fastened one to a string,
by which an attendant was to lower it in the water
close to the glass, whilst I stood watching in front.
The crab had hardly descended to the depth of two
feet before an octopus for welch it was not intended,
and which I had not obeerved (so exactly had he mistimed
the hue of the surface to which he clung), shot cut like
a rocket from one side of the tank, opened his mem.
branoos umbrella, shut up the suspended crab within
it, and darted back again to the ledge of rock on which
he had been lying in ambush. There he held on, with
the crab firmly pressed between his body and the stone-
work. As this was not what I wished, I directed
Cosham, my assistant, to gently try to pull the bait
away from him. Not a bit of it As soon as he
felt the strain he took a firm grasp of the rock with
all the suckers of seven of his arms, and, stretch-
ing the eighth aloft, coiled it. round the tautened
line, the suckers actually closing on the line also,
as • caterpillar'. foot gripes a thin twig, or a cobbler's
leathern pad folds routed his thread when he is
making • wax.end. Noticing several jerks on the
string, I thought at first they were given by the man
overhead, and told him not to use too much foree ; but
he called out, 'lt's not me, sir, it's the octopus; I
can't move him ; and he's pulling so hard that, it I
don't let go, he'll break the line.' 'Hold on, then,
and let him break it,' I replied. Tug, tug! dragged
the tough, strong arm of the octopus, and at a third
tug the line broke, and the crab was all his own. The
twine was that used for mending the seine net, and
was therefore not particularly weak. Although this
experiment furnished a fresh thustration of the
holding power of an octopus, it had not taught me
exactly that which I wasted to know. I wished to be
underneath that umbrella with the crab, or (which was
decidedly preferable) to be able to see what happened
beneath it without getting wet. My plan, therefore,
was to procure the seizure of the crab against the
front glass, instead of against the rock-work. Our
next endeavour was au xeseful. A second crab was
so fastened that the string could be withdrawn if de.
sired, and was lowered near to the great male octopus,
who generally dwells in a nook in the west front
corner of the tank. He was sleepy, and not very
hungry, and required a rood deal ot tempting to rouse
him to activity; but the sight of his favourite food
overcame his harness, and, after some demonstrative
panting, puffing, and ereution of his tubercles, he
lunged out an arm to seize the precious morsel. It
was withdrawn from his reach; and so, at last, he
turned out of bed, rushed at it, awl got it under him
against the plate-glass, just as I desired. In a second
the crah wadi cuopletely pinioned. Not a movement,
not a struggle was visible or possible—each leg, each
claw, was greened all over by suckers—enfolded in
them -stretched out to its full extent by them.
The back of the carapace was el:men-II all over
with the tenacious vacuum discs, brought together
by the adaptable contraction of the limb, and
ranged in close order, shoulder to shoulder, touch-
ing each other; while between others which dragged
the abdominal plates towards the mouth the black tip
of the hard, horny beak was seen for a single instant
protuding from the circular orifice in the centre of the
radiation of the arms, awl the next had crunched
through the shell, and was buried deep in the Hersh of
the victim. The a,ti,n of an octopus when seizing its
prey for its necessary food is very like that of • cat
pouncing on • mouse, and holding it down beneath its
paws. The movement is as sudden, the scuffle as brief,
and the escape of the prisoner even less probable. 'rhe
fate of the crab is not really more terrible than that
of the mouse or a minnow swallowed by a perch, but
there is a repulsiveness about the form, colour, and at-
titudes of the octopus which invests it with a kind of
tragic horror."