COMMON CROSSFISH. 87 



the Starfish had inserted a sucker through the hole. Mr. 

 Ball's impression was, that the Starfish had made the per- 

 foration. I should rather consider it the action of some 

 siphonostomatous Gasteropod, which, not having extracted 

 its prey, the Uraster was devouring the remains, and 

 perhaps sounding with its sucker the prospects of a meal. 

 M. Eudes Deslonchamps has published some interesting 

 observations on the feeding of this species in the Memoirs 

 of the Linnsean Society of Calvados for 1825. He tells us 

 that when the tide was out, and while two or three inches 

 of water remained on the sand, he saw balls of Asterias 

 rubens, five or six in a ball, their arms interlacing, rolling 

 about. In the centres of the balls were Mactrae stultorum 

 in various states of destruction, but always unable to close 

 their valves and apparently dead. Does not the Starfish 

 in such cases destroy its food by a poisonous secretion, and 

 thus master the Shellfish 1 Uraster rubens has long been 

 believed to secrete an acrid fluid from its skin, which burns 

 the skin of those who handle it. This story is repeated in 

 works of natural history to the present day ; yet I have 

 handled hundreds without having felt any such sensation, 

 and I never met any person who had felt it. Pliny tells 

 us Starfishes can burn all they touch (lib. ix. c. 60) ; also 

 Aldrovandus and Albertus, who said their nature was so 

 hot that they cooked everything they meddled with. 

 Link thought that their eggs had been mistaken for cooked 

 food ; and Luid, who was an out-door naturalist, denied 

 the notion altogether. Possibly it arose from confounding 

 them with the stinging Medusa?, which are also called 

 Sea-stars by many, and confounded by the vulgar with 

 Starfishes. Sir Thomas Browne notes on this notion, 

 " Stella Marina, or Sea-stars in great plenty about Yar- 

 mouth. Whether they be bred out of the Urticus, Squal- 



