332 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
spheres, but are found largest in the tropical ocean, In 
our own waters they are very abundant, and are among the 
most curious and beautiful game pursued by 
the dredger. 
The British Ophiuride belong to two 
generic types, that of the Ophiwre and that 
of the Euryales. The former, to which the 
sand and brittle-stars belong, have simple 
arms; the latter, arms ramifying into many 
processes, 
The rays of the Sand-stars have a whip-like 
or lizard-tail appearance, while those of the 
Brittle-stars look like so many centipedes or 
annelides attached at regular distances round 
alittle sea-urchin. We have ten native brittle- 
stars, the most common of which (Ophiocoma 
vosula, Forbes) is also one of the handsomest, 
presenting every variety of variegation, and 
the most splendid displays of vivid hues ar- 
rauged in beautiful patterns. Not often are 
two specimens found coloured alike. It is 
the most brittle of all brittle-stars, separating itself into 
pieces with wonderful quickness and ease. Touch it, and 
it flings away an arm; hold it, and in a moment not an 
arm remains attached to the body. “The common brittle- 
star,” says Edward Forbes, “often congregates in great num- 
bers on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a large 
dredge come up completely filled with them; a most curi- 
ous sight, for when the dredge was emptied, these little 
creatures, writhing with the strangest contortions, crept about 
in all directions, often flinging their arms in broken pieces 
around them; and their snake-like and threatening attitudes 
were by no means relished by the boatmen, who anxiously asked 
permission to shovel them overboard, superstitiously remarking 
that the things weren’t altogether right.” 
Fancy the naturalist’s vexation, who has no other means of 
preserving a brittle-star entire than by quickly plunging it into 
cold fresh water, which acts as a poison on the Ophiure as well 
as on most other marine animals, and kills them so instan- 
Sand-star. 
baal 
