46 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



THE STAR-FISH AND SEA-URCHIN FIGHT 



The star-fish is a soft-mouthed animal, with- 

 out anything in the way of teeth or jaws, but 

 it is a thoroughgoing carnivore. It does much 

 harm on the oyster-beds, engulfing the small 

 oysters in its capacious protrusible stomach. 

 It is fond of mussels, and it can actually open 

 the valves by hunching itself up above the 

 mussel and persistently pulling in opposite 

 directions with the suctorial tube-feet of two 

 of its arms. But who would think of a star-fish 

 tackling a small sea-urchin, covered all over 

 with spines like a hedgehog, and equipped 

 with hundreds of little snapping blades (called 

 pedicellariae), like scissors with three blades. 

 When these snapping spines are touched, they 

 clinch; and some of them are poisonous. 



Nothing daunted, if we dare use such a 

 phrase in regard to an animal that has not a 

 vestige of brains, not even one nerve-centre, 

 the star-fish lays one of its arms on the prickly 

 sea-urchin. The hundreds of tube-feet on the 

 under surface of the arm are promptly nipped 

 by the sea-urchin's snapping spines. The star- 

 fish withdraws its arm, and the snapping 

 spines, unable to let go, are wrenched off. 



