26% SUBKIKGDOM ECHINODEBMATA. 



mouth and wrapping it over the shell-fish, etc., upon which 

 it feeds. On the end of each ray is a red eye, over which a 

 circle of spines may be thrown for its protection. 



The Star-fish can adapt itself to the inequalities of the 

 surface over which it moves, and even enter narrow fissures. 



Fig. U8. 



Astroph&ton agassizii, Basket-fish. 



On the "back is a kind of sieve (madreporic body), through 

 which water filtered of sand passes to the locomotive suckers. 

 In some species, the five arms are subdivided till the number 

 of branches is nearly five thousand.* 



* All the Star-fishes, of which there are at least one hundred and fifty species, 

 have the power of disintegrating themselves, especially the many-branched varieties, 

 and of restoring in a brief time the portions broken off. Hence when fishermen vent 

 their spite upon them for stealing their bait, by tearing them in pieces and throwing 

 them overboard, they simply multiply the evil. Immersed in fresh cold water they 

 die instantly. 



