COMMON HEART-URCHIN. (Without spines.) PURPLE HEART-URCHIN. Spatangus pvrpureM. 



FIDDLE HEART-URCHIN. -Brismit lyrifer. COMMON HEART-URCHIN. AmphidMw corddtut. 



FIDDLE HEART-URCHIN. (Without spines.) 



In some of the hotter parts of the world, such as the Indian seas, several species of 

 Echinus are armed with sharp and slender spines, which are apt to pierce the bare foot of 

 a bather, and to cause painful, and even dangerous, wounds. Most of these Echini live in 

 the crevices of rocks, but sometimes crawl over the sand, and inflict much suffering upon 

 those who unwittingly place a foot upon them. Mr. F. D. Bennett, in his account of a 

 '' Whaling Voyage," had practical experience of these sharp spines: "On one occasion, 

 when searching for fish in the crevice of a coral rock, I felt a severe pain in my hand, and, 

 upon withdrawing it, found my fingers covered with slender spines, evidently those of an 

 Echinus, and of a grey colour elegantly banded with black. They projected from my 

 fingers like well-planted arrows from a target, and their points, being barbed, could not 

 be removed, but remained for some weeks imbedded as black specks in the skin. 



Its concealed situation did not permit me to examine this particular Echinus, but I 

 subsequently noticed others of a similar nature fixed to the hollows in the rocks ; they 

 were equal in size to the Echinus cidaris, and their body was similarly depressed, but the 

 spines were long, slender, and more vertically arranged, and their points finely serrated. 

 Their colour was jet black. These animals adhered so firmly to the rocks, that they could 

 not be detached without difficulty. 



When closely approached, they gave an irritable shrug to their spines, similar to that 

 displayed by the porcupine or hedgehog. It was difficult to say if the hand had been 

 brought in perfect contact with this Echinus before it was wounded by its weapons. In 

 some experiments, I approached the spines with so much caution, that had they been the 



