The sepia, the small calamary and the large
calamary have an exceptional organ in a pair of long arms or
tentacles, having at their extremities a portion rendered rough by
the presence of two rows of suckers; and with these arms or tentacles
they apprehend their food and draw it into their mouths, and in
stormy weather they cling by them to a rock and sway about in the
rough water like ships lying at anchor. They swim by the aid of the
fins that they have about the sac. In all cases their feet are
furnished with suckers.
The octopus, by the way, uses his feelers either as feet or hands;
with the two which stand over his mouth he draws in food, and the last
of his feelers he employs in the act of copulation; and this last one,
by the way, is extremely sharp, is exceptional as being of a whitish
colour, and at its extremity is bifurcate; that is to say, it has an
additional something on the rachis, and by rachis is meant the
smooth surface or edge of the arm on the far side from the suckers.
(See diagram.)
In front of the sac and over the feelers they have a hollow
tube, by means of which they discharge any sea-water that they may
have taken into the sac of the body in the act of receiving food by
the mouth.
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