STAR-FISH. 117 



dom. The non-zoological reader will understand, therefore, that 

 it is only in the sense of that comprehensive phraseology which 

 makes everything "fish" which lives in the sea, that the 

 Star-fish have any connection with the finny tribes. The Star- 

 fish and their allies constitute the spiny-skinned fraternity known 

 as the Ecliinodermata, a designation, however, which, like many 

 more of our scientific terms, only partially applies to the animals 

 which bear it. The common Star-fish (Uraster rubens) may be 

 taken as the type of its race. It is a well-known creature on 

 most parts of our coast, where it passes under a variety of 

 popular names, as Cross-fish, Star-fish, Five-fingers, and the 

 like, and may often be seen clinging to the half-submerged rocks 

 and boulders at the time of low water, or, dead and partially 

 decomposed, mingled with the line of refuse which marks the 

 highest advance of the tide. People who know the Star-fish 

 only in the form of the stiff and dried specimens of a museum, 

 will be surprised to see them in the Aquarium, clambering over 

 the blocks of stone, bending to all the irregularities of the surface, 

 and moving along with considerable facility. Look attentively 

 and you may see how these movements are effected. From the 

 under surface of each ray protrude a host of minute worm-like 

 suckers, which are seen groping and feeling about, extending and 

 contracting themselves, some fastening on to the surface of the 

 stone, others loosening their hold to stretch forward and attach 

 themselves afresh ; the whole acting, the spectator is apt at first 

 to think, without concert or unity of purpose, and yet, more 

 closely observed, all evidently obeying a common impulse, and 

 enabling the animal by their united efforts to draw itself along. 



By means of these curious organs, the Star-fish mounts the 

 glass sides of its prison-house just as easily as the blocks of 

 stone ; and thus exhibiting itself, the whole of its under surface 

 is exposed, and every movement of the suckers may be watched. 

 The animal has now a very curious appearance. Its mouth is 

 seen in the form of a circular orifice in the centre of the disc 

 from which the rays diverge ; each of these rays is seen to be 

 traversed by a deep groove ; and from alternating rows of minute 

 perforations in these grooves issue the tubular suckers, which 

 form the Star-fish's only organs of locomotion. 



But locomotion is not the only purpose to which these curious 

 members are applied. They are equally serviceable in the 



