MARINE ZOOLOGY OF ARRAN. 265 



ray. Care is needed in the preservation of this species, for 

 it has the knack of dislocating its arms under your most 

 cautious treatment. But the star-fish that has gained most 

 notoriety, from the facility with which it can apparently at 

 pleasure dismember itself nay, break itself into any number 

 of fragments and, vexatiously enough, at the very moment 

 when you think the animal is deceased, and preserved un- 

 injured, is Luidia fragilissima. The subjoined description is 

 from the pen of the late Professor Edward Forbes : " 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. 

 neutralized by its destructive exertions; and it is now badly 

 represented in my cabinet by an armless disc and a discless 

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

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

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

 to which article star-fishes have a great antipathy. As I 

 expected, a Luidia came up in the dredge 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 sunk 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 air 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 ex- 

 tremity of an arm with its terminating eye, the spinous 

 eyelid of which opened and closed with something exceedingly 

 like a wink of derision." * 



* British Star-fake*, p. 138. 



