Five-Fingered Jack on the Oyster. 



45 



STAR-FISH OPENING AN OYSTER. 



inwardness of the proceeding. The oyster is seized between 

 the arms of the Star-fish and held under its mouth by the 

 aid of its suckers. Thus secured, the Asterias, or Star-fish, 

 everts its stomach, and envelops the whole oyster in its in- 

 terior recesses, distilling a poisonous fluid, a secretion from 

 its mouth, which causes the oyster to open its shell, when 

 the robber, as it were, crawls in and takes its dessert. In- 

 credible numbers of oysters are destroyed by Star-fishes, 

 but the oystermen fail to see that their own barbaric ignor- 

 ance is largely to blame. Star-fishes drawn up in nets, rakes 

 and dredges in immense quantities are tied into bundles, but 

 the cords are made so tight that the pile is cut in twain, the 

 result being that all the pieces, when afterwards thrown over- 

 board, become new and perfect Star-fishes. 



Not often has one the pleasure of meeting with these ani- 

 mals on the New Jersey coast, but yet they are occasionally 

 seen, more frequently, perhaps, in the North. Asterias bery- 

 linns, the commoner form, is a fairly large species, of a more 

 or less greenish color, sometimes waning to brown, and 

 roughly covered with tubercles. Its five arms, at the ex- 

 tremity of each of which is situated a single red-eye speck, 



