no THE SEA-SHORE 



nothing being left but the central disc and a 

 heap of fragments ! However, it does not appear 

 to suffer any pain, or to lose any blood, and the 

 five wounds on the disc very quickly heal. Then 

 after a few days five little buds begin to show 

 themselves, which quickly grow into new rays, 

 and in a few weeks' time the brittle starfish is 

 as perfect as ever! 



So ready are these creatures to break them- 

 selves up, that it is most difficult to obtain a 

 perfect brittle starfish for a museum. 



Brittle starfishes are very active animals, and 

 when they are alive their long slender rays are 

 always wriggling and coiling and twisting about, 

 hardly ever seeming to be still for a single 

 moment. Indeed, one naturalist compares a 

 brittle starfish to five very long and active 

 centipedes stitched to a tiny pin-cushion ! 



There are several different kinds of these very 

 curious animals, most of which live at some little 

 distance below low-water mark, and are hardly 

 ever caught except by means of the dredge. But 

 sometimes you may find one of them lying on the 

 sand at the bottom of a pool among the rocks. 



