| PAGE | |
| INTRODUCTION | [xiii] |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| THE OCTOPUS AND ITS RELATIVES | [1] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| OCTOPODS I HAVE KNOWN | [7] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| “THE TOILERS OF THE SEA” | [12] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND OF FACT | [19] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| THE OCTOPUS OUT OF WATER | [37] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| NEW LIMBS FOR OLD ONES | [49] |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| SPAWNING OF THE OCTOPUS | [56] |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| CUTTLES AND SQUIDS | [67] |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| ECONOMIC VALUE OF CUTTLE-FISHES | [83] |
| CHAPTER X. | |
| GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES | [99] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| FIG. | PAGE |
| THE OCTOPUS (Octopus vulgaris) | [Frontispiece]. |
| 1. THE PAPER NAUTILUS (Argonauta Argo) | [5] |
| 2. SUCKER OF THE OCTOPUS | [21] |
| 3. MANDIBLES OF THE OCTOPUS | [25] |
| 4. TONGUE OF THE OCTOPUS | [26] |
| 5. THE OCTOPUS SWIMMING | [28] |
| 6. EGGS OF THE OCTOPUS | [58] |
| 7. THE COMMON CUTTLE-FISH (Sepia officinalis) | [67] |
| 8. SEPIOLA RONDELETII | [70] |
| 9. THE COMMON SQUID (Loligo vulgaris) | [71] |
| 10. EGGS OF THE CUTTLE-FISH (Sepia officinalis) | [73] |
| 11. SPAWN OF THE COMMON SQUID (Loligo vulgaris) | [76] |
| 12. FAC-SIMILE OF DE MONTFORT’S “Poulpe Colossal” | [101] |
INTRODUCTION.
More than 2200 years ago—nearly four centuries before the Evangelists wrote their imperishable histories of the events on which the faith of Christendom is based—Aristotle, the celebrated naturalist of Stageira, in Macedonia, recorded observations of the habits and reproduction of the Octopus which clearly show that he was more intimately acquainted with its mode of life than any writer of a later date between his day and ours.
For how many centuries before his time facts and fallacies concerning this curious animal were handed down from father to son in oral tradition, and from generation to generation in manuscript, ages before printing was invented, it is impossible to say: he occasionally quotes from the works of previous writers, and Strabo tells us that he had a good collection of books, and was the first philosopher who possessed a library of his own. But the faint glimmering of information to be derived from early bookish lore was insufficient to satisfy his desire and that of his sovereign for more complete and perfect knowledge. Alexander the Great, who, in his youth, was under his tuition for ten years, gave him, therefore, the means of extending his researches, by placing at his disposal a large sum of money and a staff of assistants. According to Pliny the latter were sent to various parts of Asia and Greece under orders to collect animals of all kinds, and by means of vivaria, fishponds, aviaries, &c., “to watch their habits so closely that nothing relating to them should remain unknown.” Aristotle thus accumulated a multitude of notes and observations, many of which, though ridiculed and discredited by later zoologists, were marvellously accurate; and from them constructed a work elaborate in its details, grand in its conception and idea, and comprehensive as a general history of the Animal Kingdom.