The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-06 00:00:00

BLBY OCTOPODS.

Mr. Henry Lee, P.Lit, writes in Lend and Water :
" The young octopus fresh from the egg is very
different in. appearance from an adult individual of the
same species. At first sight it is more like a Sepia,
without ita tentacled, than an octopus. The arms,
which will afterwards be four or five times the length
of its body, are so rudimentary as to be even shorter
in proportion than the pedal arms of the cuttlefish,
and aopear only as little conical excrescences, having
points of heir-like fineness, and arranged in the form
of an eight-rayed coronet around the head. At this
early stage of its existence, the young octopus seeks
and en jqs the light which it will, later in life,
carefully shun. It manifests no desire to hide itself in
crevices and recesses, es theadult does; bute winis freely
about in the water, often close to the surface—propel-
ling itself backward by a series of little jerks, caused
by eml stroke of the force-pump, which expels • jet
of water from the out-fl iw pipe of the syphon. This
contrast of its habits in youth and age is so remark-
able, that when, after witnessing the gay activity of
the movements of the child-octopus, I again watched
the furtive, skulking habits of its shrivelled-skinned
father, I could not help comparing the latter to the
old thief trainer in Oliver Twin ; and wondering
whether there ever could have been a time in the
life of Fagi the Jew, when he was innocent and
frolicsome, and played, and leaped, and ran, and
danced, and revelled in the sin-exposing sunshine;
before the light of day became odious to him, and
he shrank from it as a danger to be dreaded, and
kept himself hidden in his den, while his emissaries
went out, like the arms of the old octopus, in search
of prey for the benefit of their employer. This pre-
ference for the light appears to be common also to the
young squid and cuttle-fish. At the Brighton Aquarium
the latter may generally be seen, at present, at the
top of the watet ; sometimes swimming gently by
mean' of the locomotive tube, and the undulating
movement of the marginal fins, and at others poised
mctionless, as if balking. The habit in these two
families is not so surprising as-it is in the young octo-
pus, because the adult Sepia and Loligo are not cave-
dwellers, but frequently approach the surface; and I
have been told by fishermen that they have seen a
great number of both kinds attracted by the light of a
lantern, and thus captured for bait with a 'heat' or
gaff. Like the young squid, • little octopus I. very
much smaller at its birth than a cuttle-fish. The latter
is as large when hatched as a rather small horse bean,
while the young octopus is about the sire of a large
Zea, and when irritated is of much the same colour.
. .

. -
On Saturday week an amusing illustration of the
wandering propensities of the octopus occurred at the
Brighton Aquarium. In anticipation of the arrival of
some IFerary and exientitic friends, I had transferred
an octopus from its tank to • bowl of water in my pri-
vate roow, that they might be able to examine it
minutely. I left it for • quarter of an hour, and, on
my return with them, found it topping and sprawling
along on the carpet. It had got out of the vane,
tumbled off the table on to the ftior, and reached the
further sido of the room. Of course it was immediately
replac,l in th,, water, and retuned none the worse for
its sitgalar promenade."