KEPORT OF rOMMISSlOXERS OV IXLAXI) FTSTIElltES. 19 



covered with sea-weed or in tlie eel-grass along the randdy shore. 

 In the eel-grass, just below low water mark, the small stars (half- 

 inch more or less from centre to tip) are especially numerous, 

 and here they will be found devouring small clams, quahaugs, 

 sea-snails, and worms of various kinds. The eel-grass is usually 

 abundant near oyster beds and is a veritable nursery for young 

 star-fish. In the aquarium they eagerly devour fragments of 

 crabs or other animals, and occasionally even other star-fish 

 smaller than themselves. The adult star-fish, besides eating 

 numerous small animals which come in its way, attacks and de- 

 vours larger ones. I have seen them eat the sea-snails Litorina, 

 Ilyanassa, Urosalpinx, barnacles, quahaugs, mussels, as well as 

 oysters. Tliere seems to be no question, however, but that they 

 prefer small oysters to any other diet. If hungry they will also 

 devour other star-fish which are smaller or which have been muti- 

 lated. 



But we must give the animal his due, and the star-fish should be 

 given the credit of devouring in great numbers, " oj^ster-drills " of 

 various species, including young "conchs" (Sycotypus and Ful- 

 gar), which in southern waters, especially in the Chesapeake Bay 

 and in other countries, for example Japan, where the star-fish are 

 not so common, prove a serious menace to the oyster culture, 



YII. What is the method of feeding ? 



The mouth of the star-fish is in the centre of the disc on the 

 lower side of the bod3^ Comparatively small pieces of food are 

 taken into the stomach and the refuse ejected again through 

 the mouth. But, since the mouth is small (no more than one- 

 fourth inch in a good-sized star), and surrounded by a rigid 

 skeleton, larger animals, which form the greater part of the star- 

 fish bill-of-fare, are necessarily digested without being taken in 

 through the mouth. The stomach, therefore, is turned inside 

 out and, w^rapping itself about the animal to be devoured, digests 

 gests it where it lies. It is safe to say, I think, that the stomach 



