ECHINUS. 129 



the shell, and sometimes by the ova consolidated in a ring, as a mass}^ 

 circular wall around the orifice. These parts are composed wholly of 

 spherical ova.— Plate XXXI., fig. 9 ; Plate XXXII. fig. 5, ova. This 

 ovarium is frequently far advanced in the month of April. 



The Echinus, if uninjured, is not of difficult preservation. It is a 

 bold, fierce, and voracious animal, the inveterate enemy of whatever it 

 cau overcome, and greedily devourmg all that comes in its way, — even 

 what seems secure from assault : — nothing has any chance of escape. I 

 have never witnessed such an insatiable, such a universal appetite. Fish, 

 flesh, zoophytes, algse, and fuci, are all accepted, and a hearty meal can 

 be made of pure shell. It is not to be doubted, as the larger testacea are 

 readily devoured, others with their helpless inmates become easy victims. 



An Echinus of moderate size having seized a small living crab the 

 victim seemed to be paralysed by simple contact, nor did it offer any re- 

 sistance to its ferocious foe. Another Echinus, about fifteen lines in dia- 

 meter, fastened its extended suckers on a small lobster, a galathea. But 

 the latter, directing one of its claws with sufficient dexterity, cut the 

 suckers asunder, and freed itself from the assailant's deadly grasp. 



The Echinus seems to have a natural propensity to destroy. Those 

 not a quarter of an inch in diameter will tear leaves in fragments. 



In some warmer climates, where certain species retreat occasionally 

 from deeper water, persons frequenting the shore are Uable to severe in- 

 juries of their feet from the spines. Examples are said to be known of 

 limbs being thus lost. 



The Echinus is reputed to have been converted to food by the 

 ancients, but this practice can be scarcely said to have descended, unless 

 very partially, to modern times. 



I have heard nevertheless that the animal was formerly brought to 

 the Edinburgh market for the sake of the roe, which was employed for 

 culinary purposes. 



We know that one species has been denominated EcJdiius cdidis, 

 wliich indicates that it has been truly consumed as food, and some 

 naturalists identify it "wdtli the subject of the present paragraph. Mr 

 Waring, in his entertaining Letters from Malta and Sicily in 1834, 



R 



