[Illustration:  CORALS OF MANY KINDS.]

That very strange creature, the Pipe-fish, has the most peculiar nursery of all.  He uses no building material!  No made-up nest of weed or sand for him!  No, he prefers to carry his eggs in his pocket.  To be more exact, there is a small pouch under his body, and there the eggs are kept until they hatch.  Meanwhile, the Pipe-fish goes about his affairs in the pool as if nothing particular had happened.  You will see more about this funny little fish when we come to our lesson on “The Fish of our Rock-pools.”

EXERCISES

1.  What are the eggs of the Skate and the Dog-fish like? 2.  How does the Sea-stickleback build his nest? 3.  Where would you find the Sand Goby, the Pipe-fish, and the Sea-stickleback? 4.  How does the Sand Goby build its nest?

LESSON V

THE OGRE OF THE DEEP

The ogre of the fairy-tale is bad enough, but, for evil looks, the Octopus is worse still.  With his tough, brownish skin, knobbed like the toad’s back, his large staring eyes, his parrot’s beak, and ugly bag of a body, the Octopus is a horrid-looking creature.  Add to this eight long arms twisting and writhing like snakes, and you have an idea of the most hideous inhabitant of the deep.

Then, like the ogre, the Octopus lives in a cave, and goes forth at night to claim his victims.  He tears them to pieces, and returns to his dark cavern when daylight comes.

Before seeing how this ugly monster lives, eats, breathes and fights, we must know something of the way he is made.  In the first place, it may surprise you to know that the Octopus’s body is made on the same plan as that of the snail.  The ogre of the ocean and the Garden Snail are second cousins!  Their family name—­mollusc—­means soft-bodied.

But there are such numbers of molluscs that we split them up into different orders, just as a big school is split into classes.  The Octopus belongs to an order of molluscs with a long name, which only means head-footed. Why is he called head-footed?  The snail, as you know, has one broad foot under its body.  The foot of the Octopus is divided into eight strips.  These long strips are set round his head, hence the name head-footed.  Because there are eight of these long feet he is named octo-pus or eight-feet.

The feet—­or arms, or tentacles, as they are called—­are joined at their base by a skin.  It makes a sort of webbing.  In the centre of this is a horny beak, usually of a brownish colour.  It is just like a parrot’s beak, only of thinner and lighter stuff.  There are two parts to it, the top one curving down over the lower one.  Behind this beaked mouth is a hard, rasping tongue.  On each side of the head is a big, staring eye; and behind the ugly head is the ugly body, like a bag.