64 The Under -Water World 



starfish creep, brittle stars stride over 

 the sea floor in a very purposeful manner. 

 The popular name is derived from the 

 readiness to discard limbs, not merely 

 upon injury, but upon the slightest 

 touch. 



Allied to the brittle stars are the 

 basket starfish, in which the five rays 

 divide and subdivide until the central 

 disc is lost in a maze of gracefully inter- 

 twining tendrils. A basket star when 

 young resembles an ordinary brittle star, 

 but on gaining maturity has developed 

 over eighty thousand branches. The 

 creature walks on the tips of these 

 branches with the body raised above the 

 sea floor, the many serpentine arms 

 enclosing fishes as in a net. 



The Crinoids or Sea Lilies known to-day 

 are but scattered survivors of a race 

 that must have covered much of the 

 sea-bed in times past. A sea lily may 

 be compared to a brittle star mounted 



