i8 



THE MUSEUM. 



Curios from this the oldest city in 

 America, can probably get them by 

 writing Mr. Mathes as we know him 

 by experience to be of unusual amia- 

 ble disposition. 



Mr. E. Raymond a Taxidermist of 

 Flint, Mich., writes that he has just 

 had sent into his shop a large Bald 

 Eagle which measures from tip to tip 

 7 feet and 3 inches. From base to 

 tip of mandible 3.^ inches. From tip 

 of tail to tip of mandible 3 feet. 

 Weight 10 pounds. The bird was 

 taken near Flint and gave the farm 

 hand who captured it a lively tussle 

 before he succeeded in killing it. It 

 had been wounded by some gunner, 

 and had evidently flew as far as it 

 could. 



We shall be pleased to receive and 

 publish at all times, records of rare 

 finds in the Ornithological line. — Such 

 items are often of great intereat. 



Atlantic Coast Star Fishes. 



The Eastern coast of our country, 

 while not so prolific in forms of sea life 

 as some of the more tropical coasts, is 

 nevertheless quite as interesting as any 

 with which T am familiar. 



Order I. 

 OpiiiURuiDca. One of the first fam- 

 ilies to claim attention, is the faniil\- 

 Oi)hiuroidea, a group of star fishes Inn- 

 ing a more or less sharply defined cen- 

 tral disk, containing a digestive cavity, 

 whirli (Iocs not pass into the arms. In 

 this resi)ect they differ from the true 

 Asteroidea. There is no opening at 

 bottom. The arms have a number of 



arm bones, resembling vertebra:^, each 

 of which is made up of two sections- 

 The axis being usually covered with, 

 plates or sometimes with a thick skin 

 having rudimentary plates beneath, and 

 the side plates of the arms usually are 

 covered with teeth. The nerves are 

 located inside of the arms, also what 

 is called the ambulacral vessel of the 

 water system, which I will explain lat- 

 er on. The water feet are simply 

 small fine points without suckers at 

 their tips. Each of the five angles^ 

 of the mouth, is formed of five pieces, 

 or arms. The extremities of these 

 mouth-frames are firmly fixed to a jaw, 

 and attached to the inner edges of each 

 pair of jaws is a narrow plate, which 

 supports a number of processes, which 

 doubtless serve the purpose of teeth. 

 The general arrangement of the water 

 and nervous systems is on the ordinary 

 star-fish plan. The enlarged portion in 

 the center is the body cavity and sur- 

 rounds the digestive tube. 



The various species of this family 

 are rightly considered the most beau- 

 tiful and delicate of all the animals of 

 the sea. Many are covered with 

 spines and marked with beautiful col- 

 ors, arranged in bands and spots; 

 others get their beauty from the grouj)- 

 ing of their armor plates, but in \\hat- 

 ever wav produced no one will admit 

 the\' havc^ an\' supi'i'ior in Natures 

 grc^at ocean wonderland. They are 

 commonly called Serpent Stars and by 

 reference to cuts, one sees the serpent 

 like appearance at once. In all cases 

 they are delicate creatures and do not 

 like to l)c> interfered with. In fact, 

 some when taken from the water, will 

 snaji arm after arm from the body un- 

 til in some cases onlv the central disk. 



