GFNKRAL CHARACTERS OP STAR-FISH. 457 



path, and to go out of their way to avoid them. It has been 

 remarked also that, when all their feet are protruded, they will 

 suddenly retract them, if any substance be brought in close 

 proximity to them, but without touching them. 



1014. Notwithstanding their possession of this amount of 

 perceptive power, however, they do not seem to be very 

 susceptible to painful impressions. If severe mutilations be 

 performed whilst the animal is in a state of activity, it does not 

 appear conscious of them, but continues its movements as before. 

 The suckers in the neighbourhood of the injured part are 

 retracted ; but the others, even in the same ray, continue their 

 actions, as if unaffected by the sense of injury. Of the extent to 

 which reproduction of parts may take place after such mutila- 

 tions, details have already been given. The Asterics are animals 

 of great voracity. Like the Actiniae, they seem to be always 

 gaping, as it were, for food ; and to swallow whatever falls in 

 their way. The mouth is extremely dilatable, so that it can 

 admit large shell-fish and Crustacea, as well as small fishes, and 

 fragments of larger bodies which may be cast upon the shore. 

 Like the Sea- Anemone, they disgorge the undigestible parts by 

 the same orifice ; and they seem also possessed of the power of 

 partially everting their stomachs, or turning them inside-out, so 

 that the lining membrane projects through the mouth. Indeed 

 it is in this 'condition that they frequently lie in wait for their 

 prey ; the protruded portion being wrapped round the object, 

 and then drawn in. It seems to be by some means of this kind, 

 that the Asteriae are able to destroy and digest Oysters and 

 Mussels, without drawing their bodies from the shell. 



1015. In the Ophiurce we find a more distinct central disk 

 than in the Asteriae; and to this the viscera are confined. It is 

 furnished with arms, which are sometimes simple or undivided 

 from one extremity to the other, and of a rounded tapering form, 

 like a serpent's tail, as in the genus Ophiurce ; whilst in other 

 genera, as the Euryale, they ramify minutely, dividing regularly 

 into branches which again subdivide, so as to form a most com- 

 plex series of appendages. These arms are all composed of 

 jointed plates, like those of the Asterice ; and they are possessed 



