458 Prof. P. M. Duncan cmd Mr. W. P. Sladen on 



study, however, of the series leads us to the conclusion that 

 no sound distinction can be drawn ; and we would offer as a sug- 

 gestion explanatory of the divergence, that in these arctic 

 forms of Crossaster premature phases are more slowly passed 

 through, and that development of detail takes place in a dif- 

 ferent ratio to the body-growth from that which obtains 

 under more favourable conditions of life. 



The largest specimen obtained measures 93 milliras. in 

 diameter. 



Brandt founded a species, Asterias affinis^ upon a single 

 specimen obtained in Behring Straits, but which, from the 

 short description given, appears only to have been similar to 

 the specimens before us; and, such being the case, the grounds 

 are not sufficient to warrant the maintenance of his species. 

 In all probability A. alhoverrucosa, Brandt, is also identical. 



A singular instance of the rapacity of this starfish may be 

 here related. The disk of one of the large individuals from 

 Discovery Bay being considerably distended, it was cut 

 open ; and the distention was found to result from the 

 creature having gorged a young Strongylocentrotus drobacM- 

 ensis !, nothing but the clean calcareous plates of the test re- 

 maining *. In the stomach of another (very much smaller) 

 specimen was found the shell of Trochus olivaceus, Brown 

 (kindly determined by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys). 



Solaster endeca (Linn.), Forbes. 



Asterias aspera, 0. F. Miiller, Zool. Dan. Prodr. no. 2833. 

 A. eiideca, Linnfeus, Syst. Nat. (Gmel.), p. 316:?. 

 SteUonia endeca, Ag'assiz, Prodr. Monog. Ead. p. 25. 

 Solaster endeca, Forbes, Mem. Werner. Soc, vol. viii. p. 121. 



One young specimen, 14 millims. in greatest diameter, was 

 dredged by Capt. Feilden in lat. 65° N., 26 miles from the 

 Greenland coast, at a depth of 30 fathoms. 



* The British members of the same species seem to be equally addicted 

 to cannibalism. A few weeks ago one of the writers conveyed by rail- 

 way a small C. pa]}posus along with a specimen of Astropecten, in a jar 

 of sea-water. On reaching home, after a jom-ney of about three hours' 

 duration, it was found that the asteroid had, according to their custom 

 when irritated, thrown oif portions of two of its arms, and that the 

 Crossaster was busily gorging one of these pieces, fully the length of the 

 diameter of its own disk ! In the course of an hour the fragment had 

 entirely disappeared. On being disturbed two or three hours afterwards, 

 the Crossaster ejected the fleshless skeleton, if such a term may be em- 

 ployed. 



In the British Museum is a specimen oi Astropecten hystriv, Val., from 

 the Mauritius, which had swallowed a large Conus, the latter extending 

 even into one of the rays. 



