138 BibliograjiJiical Notices. 



ther ; and, as far as that gentleman could learn, it would appear the indus- 

 trious animal had observed and entrapped this new Opliiocomain the North 

 Sea near the Dogger Bank. 



And as a worthy companion to this picture, we present one of the 

 Luidia fragiUssima : — 



" It is the wonderful power which the Luidia possesses, not merely of 

 casting away its arms entire, but of breaking them voluntarily into little 

 pieces with great rapidity, which approximates it to the Ophiitrce. This fa- 

 culty renders the preservation of a perfect specimen a very difficult matter. 

 The first time I ever took one of these creatures I succeeded in getting it 

 into the boat entire. Never having seen one before, and quite unconscious 

 of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing bench, the better to ad- 

 mire its form and colours. On attempting to remove it for preservation, to 

 my horror and disappointment I found only an assemblage of rejected mem- 

 bers. My conservative endeavours were all neutralized 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 di-edge on the same spot, deter- 

 mined not to be cheated out of a specimen in such a way a second time, I 

 brought with me a bucket of cold fresh water, to which article Starfishes 

 have a great antipath}^ 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 sunk 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 

 Avas 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 extremity of an arm with its terminating eye, 

 the spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something exceedingly 

 like a wink of derision." 



The following extract is of a different character, and needs not 

 our introduction. Its philosophic spirit will commend itself to our 

 readers : — 



" The tracing of the connections between species and species, through 

 minute differences combined with genei'al resemblances, is one of the great- 

 est pleasures which enliven the studies of the naturalist. Every here and 

 there in organized nature we find creatures presenting the forms of one spe- 

 cies, and the structure of another, filling up a supposed blank, or overturn- 

 ing a supposed barrier. The discovery of such forms frequently annihilates 

 genera which we had long considered fixed, or brings together species which 

 we had long looked upon as but doubtfully related to each other. There 

 are men who affect to look down on the investigator of ' mere species,' who, 

 with patronizing self-sufficiency, talk of the 'humble observers of minute 

 differences of forms,' and who scarcely rank the recorder of new animals or 

 plants above the mere collector or virtuoso. Yet such persons affect per- 

 fectly to understand the great laws of nature ; and will write on what they 

 are pleased to term the philosophy of natural history, often without the 

 knowledge of a single form or structure save from a pictiu-e in a book. The 

 humility which the knowledge of the abundance of undiscovered things 

 teaches the practical naturalist, prevents him retorting on such would-be 

 philosophers; and knowing how little we yet know, he scarcely ventures to 

 pronounce any law general. He knows too well that the conclusion he drew 

 in the morning is often overturned by the discovery he makes in the even- 

 ing, to pronounce himself the lawgiver of nature ; yet also knowing, from 



