178 POPULAR HISTOKY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



small. All at once it threw off a ray^ and seemed to.be 

 marching on without being sensible of the loss; the leg 

 that was left behind appearing to retain its vitality some 

 time afterwards, moving its suckers, sometimes relaxing, 

 then tightening their hold, but the limb was not advanc- 

 ing. In seven hours^ time, all the rays but one were thrown 

 off, or rather abandoned, as they remained, with their suckers 

 active, sticking to the sides of the glass. The body in the 

 meantime walked on with its single ray alone. When one 

 ray had been thrown off, the remaining rays seemed so equi- 

 distant and the skin so entire that the narrator could not, 

 by the most careful scrutiny, find the point from which the 

 rejected member had been separated; but when the other 

 rays were gone, the points of separation were visible. The 

 Cross-fish continued walking about on one leg, which how- 

 ever fell off in the course of removal to another vessel : the 

 disc ceased to move, and soon died. 



Thus a slight dash of melancholy may be introduced oc- 

 casionally to vary the amusements of a Zoological tank. 



Plate XVII. fig. 1, represents a specimen of Uraster 

 rubens from Mr. Lloyd^s collection, which, having lost two 

 rays, is having them replaced by young growing ones. Tigs. 

 2 and 3 are Goniaster equestris. 



