168 YOUNG FEATHER STARS. 



motion, is uncertain, as we have no living species to tell 

 the tale ; and, to judge by the remains found in a fossil 

 state, it does not appear probable. The modern seas of 

 Britain furnish us with but a single species of the family 

 Crinoidce, the group to which the Lily Stars of early 

 times belonged ; and it is not a little curious that this 

 species, though it afterwards becomes free, swimming 

 about like any other Star-fish, is in its infancy affixed 

 to a stalk perfectly analogous to that of the Encrinite. 

 When first detected, in this 

 young state, it was, indeed, 

 supposed to be a distinct ani- 

 mal, and believed to be the 

 pigmy representative of the 

 Lily Star. Subsequent ob- 

 servations have shown that 

 the little creature is merely 

 the young of the Feather 

 Star (Comatula rosacea), the 

 only living Crinoid Star-fish 

 in the British seas. 



Young Feather Stars, or, 

 as they were called, Penta- 

 crinus Europeus, are found 

 affixed to the stems of va- 

 rious Zoophytes. They are 

 about half an inch or three- 

 quarters in height, with a 

 body more or less resem- 

 bling (according to its age) the perfect Comatula, fixed 

 to a column consisting of several pentagonal joints, 



