52 OPHIUR.E. 



fourths of an inch across. It sometimes grows much 

 larger. Mr. Ball has a specimen six inches in diameter ; 

 the disk half an inch broad : and I have one before me at 

 present which measures eight inches across the rays. 

 Like its allies it is extremely frangible when alive, and 

 has the power of reproducing its rays when they are 

 broken oiF. On its frangibility Mr. W. Thompson com- 

 municates the following note : — " The power of this ani- 

 mal to break itself up is exemplified in an interesting 

 manner by a specimen in Mr. Ball's collection. He placed 

 it on a sheet of paper, and glued down each part as it 

 broke it off, thus exhibiting the appearance presented by 

 the fossil species." 



Midler's name well applies to the usual colour of this 

 Brittle-star : the disk and rays are commonly black, or 

 brownish black ; the ray-spines dusky white or bluish. 

 Sometimes the disk is prettily variegated, and there is a 

 variety of an orange colour not uncommon in the Irish 

 Sea. Mr. Goodsir and I found some specimens in Shet- 

 land, of a most beautiful delicate rose colour. It appears 

 to be very generally distributed on our shores, though local. 

 Mr. Couch finds it in Cornwall ; Dr. Johnston, at Berwick ; 

 Mr. Thompson, in Strangford Lough, and the open sea on 

 the coast of Down ; and Mr. Ball, common about Dublin. 

 I believe Dr. Fleming was the first to note it as a British 

 species, having found it in Kirkwall Bay, Orkney, unless 

 the Asterias sph&rulata of Pennant be this Brittle-star, 

 which I think is not improbable. It inhabits both the 

 open sea and saltwater lochs in from seven to thirty 

 fathoms water. I have never heard of its occurrence 

 in a littoral locality. It is found throughout the seas 

 of Northern Europe. Templeton at home, and Delia 

 Chiagi abroad, have mistaken varieties of Ophiocoma 

 rosula for it. 



