[Illustration: Section of an arm and suckers of a Poulp.
_e._ Soft and tumid margin of the disk. _g._ Circular aperture. ]
Besides the hooked acetabula, a cluster of small simple unarmed suckers may be observed at the base of the expanded part. These add greatly to the animal's prehensile powers, for when they are applied to one another (_e_), the tentacles are firmly locked together at that point, and the united strength of both the elongated peduncles can be applied to drag towards the mouth any resisting object which has been grappled by the terminal hooks. There is no mechanical contrivance which surpasses the admirable structure of this natural forceps.
The size of the arms and the arrangement of the suckers differ considerably in the various species. In the octopods or poulps, which generally lead a more sedentary creeping life, and, hidden in the crevices of rocks, await the passing prey, the arms, in accordance with their wants, are with rare exceptions longer, more muscular, and stronger, than in the actively swimming decapods, where the two elongated tentacles or peduncles are the chief organs of prehension. In some species we find the arms distinct--in others they are united by a membrane. Some have a double row of suckers on each arm, others four rows, others again but one. So wonderful are the variations which nature, that consummate artist, plays upon a single theme--so inexhaustible are the modifications she introduces into the formation of numerous species, all constructed upon the same fundamental plan, and all equally perfect in their kind.
[Illustration: Arms and Tentacles of an Onychoteuthis.
_e._ Parts joined together by the mutual apposition of the armed suckers.
_f._ Terminal expanded portions bearing the hooks. ]
Thus well provided with the means for seizing and overcoming the struggles of a living prey, the Cephalopods likewise possess adequate weapons for completing its destruction; for their mouth is most formidably armed with two horny or calcareous jaws, shaped like the mandibles of a parrot, playing vertically on each other, and enclosing a large fleshy tongue bristling with recurved horny spines. Hard, indeed, must be the crab which can resist this terrible beak; and when the cuttle-fish has once fixed on the back of a fish, though much larger and stronger than himself, it is in vain for the tortured victim to fly through the water: he carries his enemy with him till he sinks exhausted under his murderous fangs.