26 KEPOKT OF COMMISSIOXEKS UF INLAND FISHERIES. 



fishes and other animals which feed indiscriminately upon minute 

 pelagic forms. It is not well understood what the enemies of the 

 adult star may be. An oysterman told me that he had seen gulls 

 carrying them off, and with field glasses had watched them. 

 It is possible that crows also prey upon the stars that are left 

 on the beach after the tide has ebbed. The crows in some regions 

 of our coast make daily journeys from their rookeries to the shore, 

 and as many as two hundred and thirty-six were one day counted 

 on the west shore of Portsmouth, R. I. 



I have noticed on certain lots of star-fish, dredged from different 

 localities, what appears to be a disease, attacking the skin first 

 and not infrequently eating its way through the body. This 

 disease attacks both the common star and the purple star. Some 

 of the star-fish in my cars at Kickemuit river were so seriously 

 affected that some of the arms were entirely eaten through and 

 the ends dropped off. Later some of them recovered. 



The most destructive enemies of many animals are the para- 

 sites, and if this disease, to which I have just referred, proves to 

 be due to a bacterium or some other infectious parasite, it may be 

 of service in destroying the star-fish, and thus directly protecting 

 the mussels, clams, and oysters. There seems to be no doubt but 

 that, with the development of the oyster beds, the star-fish has be- 

 come more numerous along oar New England coast. 



XVI. Is the popular idea that the dismembered fragments of a 

 star-fish tcill regenerate new star-fish, founded on fact ? 



It is certainly a most popular opinion that if the star-fish be 

 cut in several pieces each fragment may regenerate the remain- 

 ing parts so that a new animal results. Ingersoll (Oyster In- 

 dustry of the United States) says :— " When oysters were first 

 cultivated along the American coast, and this enemy first became 

 known, the oystermen used to save all that they caught in their 

 tongs and dredges, and pile them up in a corner of their boats 

 until evening. Then they would collect them in small packages 

 and draw a cord around each lot tightly enough to cut through it. 



