COMBAT BETWEEN AN OYSTER AND A STARFISH. 



To look at an oyster you would never imagine that there was any fight in it, would you? No one would think an 

 oyster could and would fight unless he had Ijeen a witness, some time or other, of the oyster's fighting qualities. One of the 

 most exciting contests I ever saw (says a correspondent of the New York Ereninii Sun) was between an oyster and one of 

 tlie most deadly enemies of tlie oyster family, and I am glad 

 to say that tlie oyster won the figlit. Tlie enemy was 

 a starfish, and if all of its kind were as fresli and indiscreet 

 as this one was, they wouldn't be a source of so much dread 

 to the oyster farmer. Every person who has anything to 

 do with raising oysters has seen many a battle between them 

 and starfish. These destructive enemies of the oyster grow 

 fast, but seldom attempt to attack the bivalves before they 

 are six months old, and then their inexperience and over- 

 confidence are apt to get them into a heap of trouble. A 

 starfish that has cut its eye teetli, so to speak, will get the 

 best of an oyster every time, for it will mount the shell, drill 

 a hole through it, inject its stupifying liquor into the oyster, 

 and envelop the whole thing with its capacious and elastic 

 mouth stomach before the poor shellfish knows what has 

 happened to it. A school of starfish can go through an 

 oyster farm almost as quickly as a torna lo can wipe out 

 a wheat farm in Dakota. Starfish are virtually w-alking 

 stomachs, and I have found them stretched over clams, shell 

 and all, that were a great deal bigger than the natural dimen- 

 sions of the starfish. When one of these rapacious marauders 

 envelops a clam or an oyster it simply turns itself wrong 

 side out and pulls itself over its victim, as you would pull on 

 a pair of new socks. Tliis fight I was speaking aliout occurred 

 in shallow water, and I had a good sight of it. I saw the 



starfish work warily along over the oyster and then settle ^ 



down upon it. The bivalve was on the look-out, liowever, and when the starfish was near enough the cyster s shell 

 closed like a steel trap on one of the starfish's five rays, and cut it off as slick as if it had been done with a knife. A 

 starfish doesn't mind the loss of a ray or two ; in fact, it can stand tlie loss of four of its rays and tlien make its way ofl. 

 in a short time spreading and growing the lost members again. But if tlie starfisli loses all five of its rays its doom is 

 sealed. It will die almost immediately. Tlie oyster had no sooner clipped off one of its foe's legs than it set its trap again, 

 and waited for a renewal of the attack. Tliis was not long in coming. The starlish dropped itself slowly, with so i"uch 

 confidence that I could almost see it, and was soon astride the oyster again. Again the trap flew shut, and the starfish 

 rose with Vnit tliiee of its five rays left. But it was plucky, and, with confidence unimpaired, returned fur the ihird 

 round with the prompt and watchful oyster. The round was a repetition of the other two, and the starfish was bereft of 

 another leg. The persistent enemy of' the oyster hail apparently set its mind on having that particular one, and without, 

 a moment's hesitation turned its crippled liody to the fourth assault. The oyster was now mad all the way through,^ and 

 shifted its position, turning its open shell upward as the starfish dropped toward it. This was the last round of the fight, 

 for the oyster caught both remaining rays of the starfish in the trap, and snipped them off at one bite. The rayless 

 starfish turned over and sank to the bottom dead. 



THE SEA BIRDS. 



Amongst tlie most remarkahle will he fouucl the King Penguins, wliirli come from the 

 Macquarie Islands to the southward of New Zealand, and the colder the latitude the larger 

 these birds seem to grow, till at the South Pole they attain a height of 4 feet and a weight 

 of 70 or 80 lbs. When they are nf this size they are largely ttdcen for the oil they yield. In 

 these birds nature has modified .^ the wings into tliiqiers, ajijiarenlly only of use for swimming 

 on the water. 



Mr. Hatch, of Invercargill, N.Z., sends a yearly exiieditimi out to procure penguin oil, 

 which is universally adnntted to be the best oleaginous substance for the treatment of the 

 twine used in the reaper and binder machiues ; on his retm'u from his last trip Mr. Hatch gave 

 the following accoimt of the islands, which was reproduced in the weekly press, as were also the 

 jihotographs given below : — 



To the south of Stewart Island lie the Macquaries, Snares, Auckland, CauiplicU, Antipodes, and Bounty islands. 

 On all of these penguins and other sea birds abound. The Macquaries are in lat. 54 deg. 45 min. south, and 158 deg. 

 50 min. west longitude, distant 850 miles from Hobart, and belonging to Tasmania. Mr. .loseph Hatch has the unique 

 honour of possessing the most southern manufactory in the world, having at great expense and risk succeeded in 

 establishing a flourishing oil industry in the largest of these remote islands. The penguin life on the Macquaries is 

 simply marvellous, countless inillioiis congregating together in their rookeries like so many regiments. Our illustrations, 

 wliicli are from original negatives specially made for Mr. Hatch, give but a faint idea of the immense areas covered 



