194 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



vigour, which we hastened to offer to the inspection 

 of some ladies, our companions upon the beach. 

 Judge of our mortification, when, instead of express- 

 ing the slightest interest or curiosity upon the occa- 

 sion, they began to scream and shriek very much 

 after the same fashion as the cockatoos, interlarding 

 their screams every now and then with Oh, the 

 horrid thing ! What is it ? Will it bite ? until at 

 length one of them, more valorous than the rest, 

 stamping upon my poor Ophiurus, liberated her friends 

 from their assumed fear, and with the air of a second 

 Judith after despatching another Holofernes, stood 

 triumphing in the act. 



The Ophiurus in question is, it need hardly be 

 said, a star-fish, in shape somewhat resembling the 

 impress upon a Manx halfpenny only, instead of 

 three legs surrounding nothing, and the motto Quo- 

 cunque jeceris stabit, it consists apparently of five 

 serpents' tails implanted around a central disc, and is 

 quite unable to stand at all. 



This very elegant animal (PL IV. fig. 1) is to be 

 met with on almost every coast; and from the varieties 

 that it presents, it is somewhat perplexing to say what 

 shall be assumed as the type of the species. Some 

 are remarkably beautiful on account of the profusion 

 and distribution of the colours wherewith they are 

 decorated, yellow, blue, green and red being agree- 

 ably interspersed in a single specimen, so as to render 

 them at once both showy and interesting occupants 

 of the vivarium. 



The Ophiuri are characterized by having a central 

 disc, from the circumference of which proceed five 



