COMMON BRITTLE-STAK. Go 



minute round bodies, swimming about in all directions 

 with eccentric motions. Are not these spermatic animal- 

 cules? and may not Hermaphrodite animals, such as the 

 Ophiurae, be at one time male and another female ? or 

 are there two sexes of these creatures ? These questions 

 must be investigated. The membrane including the ova- 

 ries is covered with vibratile cilia. 



The Ophiocoma rosula seems to be equally abundant on 

 all parts of the coast of Britain and Ireland. It frequents 

 oyster, and other shell-banks in great numbers ; and is in 

 many places, as on the west coast of Scotland, and on 

 some parts of the east of England, found on the shore at 

 low water. It is fond of rocky places, but is rare in sandy 

 localities. In Shetland it grows to a much larger size 

 than elsewhere, and the spines of the Shetland specimens 

 are longer than those from other localities. 



The Common Brittle-star often congregates in great 

 numbers on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a 

 large dredge come up completely filled with them ; a most 

 curious sight, for when the dredge was emptied, these 

 little creatures, writhing with the strangest contortions, 

 crept about in all directions, often flinging their arms in 

 broken pieces around them, and their snake-like and 

 threatening attitudes were by no means relished by the 

 boatmen, who anxiously asked permission to shovel them 

 overboard, superstitiously remarking that " the things 

 weren't altogether right. 1 '' Rondeletius, who figured and 

 described this species long ago, well describes their mo- 

 tions : — " Radiorum flexuoso motu serpentum ritu repit 

 haec stella, et in sicco posita eos movere nunquam desinit, 

 quousque in partes disiecerit, qua? separata? etiam moven- 

 tur per flexus : ut vermiu partes, et lacertorum caudse 

 abscissa?." He says they prey on little shells and crabs. 



