jf As 
STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS. 
Ir is not often that one has the pleasure of meet- 
ing with star-fishes on the New Jersey coast, but 
yet they are occasionally seen, perhaps more fre- 
quently in the north, and thus they deserve a place 
here. The commoner form (Aséerias berylinus, P1. 
5, Fig. 3) is a fairly large species, of a more or less 
greenish color, sometimes inclining to brown, and 
roughly covered with tubercles. Its five arms, at 
the extremity of each of which is situated a single 
red eye-speck, are somewhat irregularly disposed, 
and not rarely one is stumpy through breakage or 
unequal development. 
It is interesting to watch the movements of the 
star-fish. From the under surfaces of the arms, at 
whose union is situated the central mouth, a great 
number of delicate tubules, each one terminated by 
a minute sucking-disk, may be seen to be vigor- 
ously in motion, the whole series undulating like 
wind-swept grain. These tubules are hollow and 
fed from within with sea-water, the increase or 
diminution of which within the tubules, regulated 
at the will of the animal, determines the length to 
which they may be extended or protruded. At- 
taching themselves to foreign objects by means of 
their sucking-disks, the animal may in this way be 
D 7 73 
