326 THE BRITTLE STARS. CHAP. xvi. 



tion ; and also worthy of the deepest admiration. Of 

 the Daisy Brittle Stars (Ophiocoma bellis) he says : 

 " They are the most beautiful of this beautiful tribe 

 which I have ever seen. Their disks differ consider- 

 ably from the Star-fishes ordinarily met with, being 

 of a pyramidal or conical form, sometimes resembling 

 the well-known shell Trodius tumidus. In colour, 

 they are like the finest variegated polished mahogany ; 

 their disks exhibiting the most beautiful carved 

 work. The rays are short in proportion to the size 

 of the disk strong, and closely beset with short, 

 thick, hard spines. I may add that the specimens I 

 allude to, were procured from that heterogeneous re- 

 pository of marine objects, the stomach of a cod, 

 which was taken about thirteen miles out at sea." 



Edward's children also helped him to procure 

 Star-fishes. " I remember," he says, " my young friend 

 Maggie, and three of her sisters, once bringing me a 

 large cargo of the Granulated Brittle Star (Ophio- 

 coma granulata) nearly two hundred of them, which 

 they had gathered up where the fishermen clean their 

 lines. I remember being particularly struck with the 

 numerous and brilliant colours displayed by the cargo, 

 exhibiting, as they did, all those tints perhaps more 

 than it is possible to name from the brightest scar- 

 let down to the deepest black, scarcely two being 

 alike. Their disks, too, were remarkably varied ; 

 some were of a perfect oval, whilst others were pent- 

 angular; some were flat, whilst others were in a 



