Barbara Bartezak, age 14, of Cleveland, Ohio for her question:

Is it true that an octopus can blush?

If you have ever seen an octopus, you might think that he had plenty of reason to blush. For the poor fellow is most hideously ugly, surely, you might think, he wants to hide in a dark cave and would change color if anyone so much as caught a glimpse of him. He does hide in dark crannies and he does change color. But not because he is embarrassed about his horrifying appearance.

He certainly is no beauty. Two glittering, lynx like eyes glare out from his huge, soft head. A bag, horny, parrot like beak hooks down the center of his face. And all about him are his writhing tentacles    eight snaky arms, each having a double row of suckers and the underside. If he wishes, he can spread out these arms to look like the ribs of an umbrella.

Mr. Octopus haunts the deep and shallow waters of warmish seas. He tucks his pear shaped body among sheltering racks and leaves out his roving tentacles to catch massing prey, He is fond of crabs and lobsters which he stuffs into his horny haws. He uses the rocky crevices to shelter his soft body and to hide from his unsuspecting prey.

Not only can the strange fellow change his own color, he can also change the color of the water around him. Sometimes he senses danger when far away from his rocky hideout. For such emergencies, he carries a pocket of dye and a siphon to squirt it    all built in, of course. Ire simply squirts his colored fluid to cloud the surrounding water. Then he makes his escape in the confusion. He can also use his siphon to squirt a bet of plain water at an enemy.

He can, if he wishes, change the color of his clammy skin, much as a chameleon changes color. For, like the chameleon, he carries minute particles of different colors in his skin, these specks of color are called chromatophore s. They are present in the skins of chameleons, certain frogs and flounders which change the, color of their coats from time to time.

When the brown chromatophores are uppermost in the skin, Mr. Octopus looks as brown as his sheltering rock. At other times the yellow chromatophores may come to the surface and Mr. Octopus turns yellow. When several colors come to the surface at once, the octopus is as mattey as a pile of pebbles. But when he appears pink, he is not blushing.

We do not know for sure why or how these tiny chromatophores move around to change the color of their owners. Certainly they sometimes seem to take on the color of their background, though not always. It may be that the creature s emotions have something to do with it. Most likely light has something to do with the strange process also. Maybe all these things play a part    but we are not sure.