THE FIVE-FINGER STARFISH 107 



look as if it could injure any other animal in any 

 way at all. Yet it is really a creature of prey, 

 and feeds upon shell-bearing molluscs, such as 

 small bivalves, which it always swallows whole. 

 Then, when it has digested their bodies, it returns 

 their empty shells through its mouth. And it 

 can even eat such big creatures as mussels and 

 oysters. Indeed, starfishes are the very worst 

 enemies of the oyster-beds, and in one fishery 

 alone, on the coast of North America, they are 

 said to destroy more than ten thousand pounds* 

 worth of oysters every year ! 



A very strange fact about the starfish is that 

 if one of its rays is cut off, a new one very soon 

 grows in its place. Stranger still, if one of 

 these creatures is cut in two, each half begins 

 to throw out new rays, and in a few weeks' 

 time there are two starfishes instead of only 

 one! That seems impossible; doesn't it? But 

 yet it is perfectly true. 



And another very curious fact about starfishes 

 is that they keep their eyes in very odd places 

 at the very tips of the rays. And in some 

 starfishes these eyes are furnished with lids, 

 which can be opened and shut! 



