224 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



this its misfortune is the more relished." The World of 

 the S&a. 



The enemies to whose attacks oysters are liable may 

 be divided into animate and inanimate. Of the former, 

 the star-fish, " five-fingers," or " devil-fish," is the most 

 serious foe. The fact was well known to the ancients, 

 though the mode by which the echinoderm is able to get 

 at the inside of the mollusc was not understood by the 

 worthies of classic times. 



" The prickly star creeps on with like deceit, 

 To force the oyster from his close retreat. 

 When gaping lids their widen'd void display 

 The watchful star thrusts in a pointed ray, 

 Of all its treasure spoils the rifled case, 

 And empty shells the sandy hillocks grace." (b) 

 So imagined Oppian and yElian. It is strange that it 

 did not strike these two classical worthies that the intrud- 

 ing finger of the star-fish must have been squeezed off by 

 the pressure of the oyster-valves, for the readiness with 

 which those echinoderms part with their limbs is notorious 

 to the most superficial observer of nature. But we know 

 better. Yes, we smile at the easy, childish credulity of 

 the ancients with regard to this and many other things, 

 but, after all, we must not boast too loudly, for it is but a 

 brief time since we of the igth century have become 

 enlightened upon the subject in question. Let us hear 

 what the late Frank Buckland remarks relatively, (c} 



"The arch-enemy of the poor, harmless, innocent 

 oyster, is the ' five-finger,' in ordinary language the ' star- 



() Oppian. Halieut 2, 180-185, Ed. Schneider. Jones' Transla- 

 tion, p. 75. 



JElian (and others) (Nat. Hist., 9, 22) has given precisely the same 

 story. 



(c) " Oyster Enemies." In Land and Water Journal, vol. i. 



