THE OCTOPUS

Evening Star, Issue 21138, 25 June 1932, Page 18

THE OCTOPUS

HARMLESS TERROR OF THE SEAS Even to-day when the octopus has become a standing feature of all up-to-date aquaria and has been made the subject of detailed study, the public conception of the animal is still founded on that impossible monstrosity created by Victor Hugo in his ‘ Toilers of tho Sea,’ writes E. Q. Boulenger. As a piece of prose the masters 7 des eription is, of course, beyond praise, but as a statement of fact. . . .! The octopus is a mollusc akin to the whelk and oyster, but modified in a very high degree. Naturally, the warmer the water the larger the octopus grows, and the giants of the race are found in the Southern Pacific. The fine model in the South Kensington Museum’s Shell Gallery is a life-size reproduction of a specimen 40ft across the arms, with a body about the size and shape of a Rugby football. Specimens only grow to such dimensions whore food is found in pro portion. The food of the animal consists entirely of .shell fish, crabs, lobsters, etc., and zoo octopods habitually share a tank with fish without the slightest

danger of a clash. Quite 99 per cent.' of humanity have an instinctive dread of the octopus, and a normally courageous bather meeting the animal loses most of his faculties in panic. Not so, however, the practised fisherman. I have seen the southern Italian render comparatively large specimens hors do combat in a few seconds by gripping the animal between the head and body and literally turning it inside out. Tho general appearance of the octopus is sufficiently well known. Each of the eight arms bears two rows of suckers capable of exerting a pull of, in quite small specimens, over 301 b. Hidden away in the middle of the tentacles is tho mouth, which is provided with a parrot-like beak. The syphon pipe through which tha creature" breaths may become an organ of propulsion, forcing the animal through the water backwards at high speed by the simple process of deep breathing. The octopus probably holds the record for rapid changes of colour, accommodating itself to almost any background. In aquaria it sometimes misbehaves. At Brighton a spec! .en once escaped from its tank, climbed through tbe ventilator, and caused a sensation by appearing in the public corridor.