STAR -FISHES. 



47 



Comatula; nor could \vc find any difference between it and 

 the perfect animal, when examining it under the microscope." 



The species which formed the subject of these interesting 

 observations has five pair of beautifully pinnated arms, and 

 is of a deep rose colour, dotted over with minute brown spots, 

 which are regarded as the ovaries. It is dredged up on many 

 parts of the Irish coast, and is occasionally found upon the 

 strand. The first specimen wo ever possessed was taken on 

 the beach about six miles from Belfast, and was brought to 

 that town alive. Anxious to secure so attractive a specimen 

 for the cabinet, we placed it in a shallow vessel of fresh water, 

 and found, to our surprise, that it emitted a fluid, which 

 imparted to the water a roseate tinge. 



The second family 

 consists of those Star- 

 fishes which have 

 a roundish central 

 body, furnished with 

 five long arms, not 

 unlike the tails of 

 Serpents, (Fig. 32); 

 and as the word 

 ophiura means a Ser- 

 pent's tail, the term 

 Ophiuridce has been \ 

 adopted as the family 

 appellation. These 

 arms are not furnish- 

 ed with suckers, like 

 those of the next division, nor do they contain any prolonga- 

 tion of the digestive organs. They are merely arms external 

 to the body, and easily separated from it at the pleasure of 

 the animal; from which circumstance the English name of 

 "Brittle-stars" has been bestowed upon the tribe. Its 

 members differ very much in size and appearance. Some of 

 them measure as much as sixteen inches in diameter; others 

 are so small, that a score or two of them might be displayed 

 on an ordinary visiting-card. Those who have looked upon 

 such objects only in the dried and rigid aspect they present in 

 our museums, can form no idea of the flexibility, variety, and 

 beauty which they present in the living state. We have, on 



* Ophiura texlurata. Forbes, p. 22. 



Fig. 32. COMMON SAND-STAR.* 



