ARCTIC SEA TO THE WEST OF GREENLAND. 45 



beyond one third of the length of the ray, and the most outward ones are made up of 

 only three or four small spinelets, not sufficient to form a paxilla proper. 



The mouth-plates are large and broad, and the marginal spines interlock with those 

 of the neighbouring mouth-angle. 



The madreporiform tubercle is small and often difficult to find, being almost hidden 

 by paxillae ; it is situated a little nearer to the centre than midway between that point 

 and the arm-angle, and in some specimens it stands at about one third the distance. 



Size. The greater radius of the three specimens known to Diiben and Koren 

 measured respectively 30, 16-18, and 11 millims. ; the specimens from Cape Frazer 

 are somewhat larger than this, whilst those from Discovery Bay measure 82 and 53 

 millims. in their greater radius. The largest of the Cape-Frazer specimens is about 

 32 millims. in the greater radius, 65 millims. in its greatest diameter, and 21 millims. 

 across the disk, the arms at their base being 13 millims. broad. 



Colour. According to Diiben and Koren, the colour of the living animal is brick- 

 red above and white beneath ; the eye-spots bright red. 



Habitat. Although no actual record has been preserved of the nature of the 

 ground inhabited by this Starfish in the far north, a certain amount of incidental 

 evidence is furnished by the fact that the smaller of the two specimens from Discovery 

 Bay has its stomach filled with the remains of Antedon, and upon which it had 

 evidently taken its last meal ! In all probability they were fellow residents on the 

 same sea-bed. 



Variations. Under this head should be recorded a specimen obtained by Mr. Hart 

 in Discovery Bay during the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76, and which we have 

 included within the present species only after much hesitation. The greater radius of 

 this example measures 82 millims., the lesser 30 millims. The arm-angles are much 

 more rounded, and the rays comparatively much broader at the base and more rapidly 

 tapering (being remarkably attenuated towards the extremity) than in smaller forms 

 with which we have previously been acquainted. By this means an extremely broad 

 character is imparted to the disk, and a contour altogether different from that given by 

 Diiben and Koren and by Sir Wyville Thomson in figures of Solaster furcifer. The 

 present specimen is also noteworthy from the great number of papulse that are present ; 

 in fact so numerous are they, that the dorsal paxillre have the appearance of 

 springing from quite a forest of these tubelets, whilst the degree to which every 

 appendage of the body is invested with membrane, and all the ventral spinelets webbed 

 together, tends to produce a character which, although superficial, is remarkably 

 striking and conspicuous. 



At first sight it would seem that these modifications should be considered marks of 

 specific distinction ; and such per se the writers would have been disposed to regard them, 

 had not a second (and smaller) specimen, likewise obtained in Discovery Bay, furnished 

 a phase of gradation between this apparently independent form and examples of the same 

 species dredged off Cape Frazer by Capt. Feilden the larger of these latter presenting 

 a stage which diverges from the ordinary form (as diagnosed by Diiben and Koren) in 

 the direction of the above-named specimen. 



