Life Beneath the Waves. 77 



The Webbed Starfish is a very much 

 rarer species: I have never dredged but 

 one specimen, and very beautiful it was 

 its colour being the most brilliant orange, 

 gradually softening to white under the 

 rays, and deepening into rich scarlet, 

 marked out with black, at the edge or 

 border of the web. The original was twice 

 the size of the drawing, and it was, unfortu- 

 nately so much bruised and injured, that it 

 died before my sketch was quite finished, 

 and its brilliant tints died with it. 



One of the especial peculiarities of Star- 

 fish is, that (like crabs, lobsters, and some 

 other Crustacea,) they possess the extra- 

 ordinary power of breaking off their limbs 

 when handled or otherwise alarmed. Those 

 known by the name of Brittle Stars are 

 particularly prone to dismemberment; the 

 rays of the species are very long and thin, 



