. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. ATi'RAL PINNOCTOPrS. Thei-e are forty-six species of Octopus known to naturalists, and their distribution appears to extend to all the rocky coasts, both in the temperate and troijical regions of the earth. The Fiimoctopus, or finned Octopus, discovered by MM. Quoy and Gaimard on the coast of New Zealand, exceeds three feet in length. Its body is furnished with two lateral tins imited behind. The Eledone, like the Octopus, is found on British coasts and also on the shores of the Mediterranean and as far north as Norway. It has on
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. ATi'RAL PINNOCTOPrS. Thei-e are forty-six species of Octopus known to naturalists, and their distribution appears to extend to all the rocky coasts, both in the temperate and troijical regions of the earth. The Fiimoctopus, or finned Octopus, discovered by MM. Quoy and Gaimard on the coast of New Zealand, exceeds three feet in length. Its body is furnished with two lateral tins imited behind. The Eledone, like the Octopus, is found on British coasts and also on the shores of the Mediterranean and as far north as Norway. It has only a single row of suckers on each arm. It Ls diminutive in size as compared with its cousin the Octopus. One species {Eledone moschata) emits a musky smell when irritated or disturbed. All the species of Octopus possess the faculty shai-ed by certain fishes, and by the Chamieleon, of varying the colour of their bodies to correspond with the hue of the rocky or sandy shore on which they desire to lie concealed. They also change colour remarkably when irritated, becoming as it were " flushed," like an angiy school- boy. The Eledone makes itself of a peculiarly heightened colour when angry. In Cirroteuthis the body is furnished with two transverse fins, whilst the eight arms or tentacles are joined by a web-like expansion of the body-membrane, so as to form a small inverted parachute or umbrella, for the capture of its prey. This is one of the most noi-thern species of Cephalopods known: the single species C. mulleri inhabiting the coasts of Greenland. It has no shell. Its colour is violet, and it is only ten inches in length. Phihmxia is the smallest of all the Octopods, being from one to three inches in length. It is gregarious in habits, and is one of the few Octopi which have been met with in the open sea, in the Medi- terranean, and the Atlantic. Its arms support two rows of suckers. It feeds on small floating mollusca. Lastly, the Ti-enioctopus, which has its arms
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