. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. Peaely Natitiltjs (Nautilus pompilius),showing chambers inside of shell. THE OCTOPUS AND ITS CONGENERS. 73 though, these long appendages are sometimes used as feet,they are habitually used as arms. Of the octopoda family is the small paper nautilus orargonaut. How few of our readers who have admired thisbeautiful shell, with its mother-of-pearl lining, have realizedthat its former inhabitant was own cousin to the horribledevil-fish—a female cousin, we must add, for the shell is notconnected with the animal organically, but is held in positionby two
. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. Peaely Natitiltjs (Nautilus pompilius),showing chambers inside of shell. THE OCTOPUS AND ITS CONGENERS. 73 though, these long appendages are sometimes used as feet,they are habitually used as arms. Of the octopoda family is the small paper nautilus orargonaut. How few of our readers who have admired thisbeautiful shell, with its mother-of-pearl lining, have realizedthat its former inhabitant was own cousin to the horribledevil-fish—a female cousin, we must add, for the shell is notconnected with the animal organically, but is held in positionby two of the long arms, with the sole purpose of protectingthe eggs. The male argonaut has no Papee NATTTrLTis (Argonauta argo). Though all the octopods, large or small, can swim freelyat will, such is not their habit; they prefer to lie concealed,or j)artially so, on the side or in the clefts of rocks. Therethe octopods body is protected from the attacks of otheranimals, while it can extend its long feelers in search ofprey, of which fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, are the princi-pal objects. Its movements, when an object of food is per-ceived, are marvelously rapid, swifter than the flight of anarrow from the bow of an experienced hunter. The long,flexible arms grasp the victim ; its hundreds of suckers, act- n THE OCEAN. ing like pneumatic holders, make escape impossible;. and, asthe long arms draw the object nearer and nearer, the othershorter arms add their multiplied disks, forming a perfectmitrailleuse of inverted air-guns, which take horrid hold,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
