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Fam. CIDAK1XLE. 

 ECHINUS.— SEA EGG. 



Echinus sphjera, Miiller. Common Sea-egg or Sea- 

 vrcJdn. — A wish has been expressed that I should in- 

 clude the " sea-egg" in my ' Edible Mollusca/ but I 

 scarcely feel justified in doing so, as it is not a mollusk, 

 and has no other claim to appear on these pages further 

 than from its being fit for food. 



It belongs to another class of animals, the Radiata or 

 Echwodermata, which includes the star-fishes and the 

 Holothuriadce. The Radiata are so called because all 

 their parts radiate from a common centre. 



Echinus sphara is generally of a reddish colour, or 

 purplish, and has white spines, in some tinged with 

 purple. 



Pliny states that the sea-urchin moves along by roll- 

 ing like a ball, which is the reason that it is so often 

 found with the prickles rubbed off; also "that these 

 creatures foreknow the approach of a storm at sea, and that 

 they take up little stones with which they cover them- 

 selves, as a sort of ballast ; for they are very unwilling, 

 by rolling along, to wear away their prickles. As soon as 

 seafaring persons observe this, they at once moor their 

 ship with several anchors."* By Aristotle it is called 

 the " migratory fish." Professor Forbes, in his 'History 

 of British Starfishes/ observes that "it is with their 

 spines that the Echini move themselves, seize their prey, 

 and bring it to their mouths by turning the rays of their 

 lower edge in different directions. The mouth is gene- 

 rally turned to the ground, and the five teeth which 

 project from it form part of a remarkable dental appa- 

 * Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. bk. ix. c. 51, p. 427. 



