48 



OPHIURvE. 



any other way it would be impossible to kill them without 

 breaking into small pieces from the extremely fragile 

 quality of the arms or rays." 



The Irish specimens agree in every particular with those 

 described by Montagu. In addition to his description I 

 may mention that the body is thick and firm. The plates 

 opposite the origins of the rays have a deep sulcation 

 running across them near their upper extremities, where 

 the plates of each pair nearly touch, but diverge greatly 

 towards the lower. The spines which border the rays are 

 nearly of equal thickness throughout their length ; their 

 ends are obtuse, and when highly magnified, they do not 

 present so many rough points at their sides as the spines 

 of most Brittle-stars, and especially those of the last species 

 do. In each transverse row of spines those of the two 

 extremities are a little larger than the others. The great 

 number of spines in each row, and their shortness, are 

 doubtless conveniences for the aiding of the animal's move- 

 ments through the wet sand. The curious fluting of the 

 under surfaces of the rays is not to be seen in any other 

 British species of this genus. The plates between the 

 origins of the rays are somewhat triangular in form, and 

 furrowed across. 



Mr. Thompson obtained two specimens by dredging on 

 a sandy bottom off Dundrum, county Down, in August 

 1836. He had previously found one in a very young state 

 during the year 1835 in Belfast Bay, and subsequently 

 at Strangford in rock-pools among Corallina officinalis. 



Of the two first-mentioned, the body of the more perfect 

 was four lines in diameter ; the arm least broken mea- 

 sured three and a half inches, and where broken was 

 nearly as broad as at the base. 



Dr. Fleming refers Pennant's Asterias minuta, which 



