104 SOLASTERI.E. 



it as rare. A specimen which he kindly sent me for ex- 

 amination, measured no less than seven inches across. He 

 also finds the smooth variety at low water, but not com- 

 mon. In Scotland it is abundant on the east coast. In 

 the Shetland Isles it is very common at low water. One 

 day, when Mr. Goodsir and I were seeking for marine 

 animals when the tide was out in Bressay Sound, we found 

 the rocks covered in many places with minute round red 

 bodies, always in the neighbourhood of one of these Star- 

 fishes. On magnifying some we doubted not that they 

 were very young Cribellce. They were quite soft, of an 

 orange-red colour, and presented no traces as yet of tuber- 

 cles or spines. They were distinctly five rayed, the rays 

 truncate and notched at their extremities. The truncation 

 and notching may be seen in very young specimens of 

 several other species. The parents had probably come up 

 from deeper water to spawn on the shore. It was in June, 

 and at the same time there was much spawn of Eolidte, 

 and other Mollusca, on rocks and stones. These creatures 

 swim with great facility, and many of them are to be seen 

 on the coast only at spawning season ; so that it would be 

 of great consequence to collect data as to the spawning sea- 

 sons of all the Mollusca and Radiata, since we may be led 

 into many mistakes about the geographical distribution of 

 species, if we do not take into account the fact that the 

 animals apparently absent from a coast, may be habitual 

 visitors at certain periods. 



Having mentioned the youngest Starfishes which I ever 

 met with, I think it right here to allude to the interesting 

 observations of a distinguished Norwegian naturalist, M. 

 Sars, clergyman of the parish of Kind, near Bergen, on 

 the developement of the young of Aster ias sanguinolenta of 

 Muller, by which species, I suspect, may be meant the 



