*^ 



-.=i_ T:^: 

 COMMON BRITTLE-ST.ULi*. Uphiocoma rosula. 



WHITE SAND-STAR. (jpkiurus dlbidus 



arms as if they were indeed the serpents with which Medusa's head was surrounded. 

 The least impurity in the water will cause these strange beings to break themselves to 

 pieces in this extraordinary manner, but they never seem to disintegrate themselves with 

 such rapidity as when they are touched or otherwise alarmed. 



The lamented Professor Forbes has left an admirably quaint description of this 

 suicidal process. Having in vain attempted to secure a perfect specimen of a Brittle-star, 

 he thought that he might achieve that object by having a pail of fresh water lowered into 

 the sea, so that as soon as the dredge reached the surface of the sea it might be transferred 

 to the bucket of fresh water, and all the inmates killed at once by the shock. 



A fine specimen of the genus Luidia was then taken in the dredge. " As it does not 

 generally break up before it is raised above the surface of the sea, cautiously and anxiously 

 1 sank my bucket to a level with the dredge's mouth, and proceeded, in the most gentle 

 manner, to introduce Luidia to the purer element. Whether the cold element was too 

 much for him, or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know not ; but in a moment he 

 began to dissolve his corporation, and at every mesh of the dredge his fragments were seen 

 escaping. In despair, I grasped the largest, and brought up the extremity of an arm with 

 its terminating eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something 

 exceedingly like a wink of derision." 



These Brittle-stars are, however, extremely capricious in their exercise of this curious 

 power. It sometimes happens that, as in the instance so amusingly narrated, the creatures 

 break themselves to pieces without any apparent provocation, while, in other cases, 

 specimen after specimen may be taken, handled, killed, or wounded, without the loss of 

 a ray. Even in the aquarium, they are equally uncertain in their habits, at one hour 

 being entire and splendid specimens, and at the next being little but a solitary disk amid 

 a ruined heap of broken arms. 



THE word Ophiurus is of Greek origin, signifying snake-tail, and is therefore very 

 appropriately given to these curious beings, whose slender arms twist and coil just like a 

 handful of small serpents. 



