SUICIDAL PROPENSITY. 225 



jected members. My conservative endeavours 

 were all neutralised by its destructive exertions ; 

 and it is now badly represented in my cabinet by 

 an armless disk and a diskless arm. Next time I 

 went to dredge on the same spot, determined not 

 to be cheated out of a specimen such a way a 

 second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold 

 fresh water, to which article sea-fishes have a 

 great antipathy. As I expected, a luidia came 

 up in the dredge, a most gorgeous specimen. As 

 it does not generally break up before it is raised 

 above the surface of the sea, cautiously and 

 anxiously I sank my bucket to a level with the 

 dredge's mouth, and proceeded in the most gentle 

 manner to introduce luidia to the purer element. 

 Whether the cold air was too much for him, or 

 the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know not, 

 but in a moment he proceeded to dissolve his 

 corporation, and at every mesh of the dredge his 

 fragments were seen escaping. In despair I 

 grasped at the largest, and brought up the ex- 

 tremity of an arm, with its terminating eye, the 

 spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with 

 something exceedingly like a wink of derision." 



Before quitting the subject of star-fishes, a 

 highly interesting fact in the natural history of 

 the Cribella oculata common on almost every sea- 

 shore, must be noticed, its maternal solicitude. 

 The young of the star-fish are produced from ova, 

 and the cmbella by bending its arms -forms its 

 body into a concave figure and hatches the eggs 

 in the hollow thus made. During this process, 

 Q 



