The octopus is a stupid creature,
for it will approach a man's hand if it be lowered in the water; but
it is neat and thrifty in its habits: that is, it lays up stores in
its nest, and, after eating up all that is eatable, it ejects the
shells and sheaths of crabs and shell-fish, and the skeletons of
little fishes. It seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to
render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so
also when alarmed. By some the sepia is said to perform the same
trick; that is, they say it can change its colour so as to make it
resemble the colour of its habitat. The only fish that can do this
is the angelfish, that is, it can change its colour like the
octopus. The octopus as a rule does not live the year out. It has a
natural tendency to run off into liquid; for, if beaten and
squeezed, it keeps losing substance and at last disappears. The female
after parturition is peculiarly subject to this colliquefaction; it
becomes stupid; if tossed about by waves, it submits impassively; a
man, if he dived, could catch it with the hand; it gets covered over
with slime, and makes no effort to catch its wonted prey. The male
becomes leathery and clammy.
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