SUICIDAL STARFISH. 241 



on him, and he breaks up his dishonoured body into frag- 

 ments before your eyes. He thinks no more of throwing 

 away his legs and arms, than a young lord in London thinks 

 of squandering his acres. The late Edward Forbes has left a 

 humorous account of his hopeless endeavours to secure a rare 

 species (Luidia fragilissima) in an entire condition. To 

 understand his account, you must know that most marine 

 animals expire immediately on being thrown into fresh 

 water ; and you must further be informed that the pigment 

 spec at the end of each arm, or leg, is the extremely hypo- 

 thetical "eye" of the star-fish. Forbes was ready with his 

 bucket, and, " as I expected," he says, "a Luidia came up — 

 a most gorgeous specimen. As it does not generally break 

 up before it is raised above the surface of the sea, cautiously 

 and anxiously I sank my bucket to a level with the dredge's 

 mouth, and proceeded in the most gentle manner to intro- 

 duce Luidia to the purer element. Whether the cold water 

 was too much for him, or the sight of the bucket too terrific, 

 I know not, but in a moment he proceeded to dissolve his 

 corporation, and at every mesh of the dredge his fragments 

 were seen escaping. In despair I grasped at the largest, 

 and brought up the extremity of an arm Mdth its terminat- 

 ing eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with 

 something exceedingly like a wink of derision." 



Quitting the Star-fishes, let me call attention to those pretty 

 Cowries and the naked Molluscs : — Are not those two Ac- 

 tceons, green, with speckles of gold, attractive ? I have no- 

 thing to tell you about them, however, not having dissected 

 one, nor submitted it to any more rigorous investigation than 



