160 



THE SEA SHOEE 



their prey when too large to be passed completely through the 

 rnouth ; and they are also valuable as scavengers, since they 

 greedily devour dead fishes and other decomposible animal 

 matter. 



Feather Stars differ from other starfishes in that they are 

 stalked or rooted during one portion of their early life. At first 

 they are little free-swimming creatures, feeding on foraminifers 

 and other minute organisms that float about in the sea. Then 

 they settle down and become rooted to the bottom, usually in 

 deep water, at which stage they are like little stalked flowers, and 

 closely resemble the fossil encrinites or stone lilies so common in 



FIG. 105. LAKVA or THE 

 FEATHER STAR 



FIG. 106. THE BOSY FEATHER 

 STAB 



some of our rock beds, and to which they are, indeed, very closely 

 allied. After a period of this sedentary existence, during which 

 they have to subsist on whatever food happens to come within 

 their reach, they become free again, lose their stalks, and creep 

 about by means of their arms to hunt for their prey. 



The commonest British species of these starfishes is the Eosy 

 Feather Star (Antedon rosaceus) ; and as this creature may be 

 kept alive in an aquarium for some considerable time without 

 much difficulty, it will repay one to secure a specimen for the 

 observation of its habits. It is not often, however, that the 

 Feather Star is to be found above low-water mark, its home being 

 the rugged bottom under a considerable depth of water, where 



