36 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUARIUM. 



its colours make it a most delightful ornament to the 

 Aquarium. 



Professor Forbes gives, in one of his works, so 

 humorous an account of his early experience of an 

 individual of this family (Luidia fragillissima), that 

 I am assured my readers will be obliged to *me for 

 transferring it to these pages. I am the more in- 

 duced to do this, from the fact, that the work from 

 which the extract is taken is not very accessible to 

 the general reader, especially when at the sea-shore. 

 The Professor observes : 



" It is the wonderful power which the Luidia 

 possesses, not merely of casting away arms entire, but 

 of breaking them voluntarily into little pieces, with 

 great rapidity, which approximates it to the Ophiurae. 

 This faculty renders the preservation of a perfect 

 specimen a very difficult matter. The first time I 

 ever took one of these creatures, I succeeded in getting 

 it into the boat entire. Never having seen one before, 

 and quite unconscious of its suicidal powers, I spread 

 it out on a rowing-bench, the better to admire its 

 form and colours. On attempting to remove it for 

 preservation, to my horror and disappointment I 

 found only an assemblage of rejected members. My 

 conservative endeavours were all neutralised by its 

 destructive exertions ; and it is now badly represented 

 in my cabinet by an armless disk and a diskless arm. 

 Next time I went to dredge on the same spot, deter- 

 mined not to be cheated of a specimen in such a way 

 a second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold 



