BY THE SEASIDE—ANIMAL LIFE 



tentacles may be called the noses of the starfish, 

 for, by means of them it is able to smell. They are 

 as unlike our idea of a nose as are the little pits 

 on the feeler of the cockchafer which we examined, 

 yet these noses and ours all perform the same duties. 

 Our time will be well spent if we devote some of it 

 to a search for other less common starfish. Some 

 of them are really beautiful and whatever specimens 

 we come across can be compared with the common 

 variety which is everywhere. 



Closely related to the starfish are the sea-urchins. 

 The relationship may not be apparent at first sight 

 but a careful study of an urchin and a star will 

 reveal many points of similarity. Our object in 

 these pages, however, is to find material for our 

 microscope and not to unfold the relationships of 

 various members of the Animal Kingdom. When 

 we have learned to cut sections, we may try our 

 hand at the spine of a sea-urchin, it is an object 

 well worthy of study. The hard shell of the urchin 

 may be examined under a low magnification, we 

 shall see then that his armour is far more highly 

 developed than that of the starfish. 



Another near relative of the two animals we have 

 just described is the sea slug or sea-cucumber. 

 Though an article of commerce of some importance 

 in the far East, the sea-slug is not so common on 

 our coasts as its relations. We must make a point 

 of finding a specimen, however, for it provides us 

 with one of the most remarkable objects for our 

 microscope that could possibly be imagined. One 



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