COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHORE. 301 



times white, spotted with red often marked with 

 a star of red or yellow, and occasionally nearly 

 black. The rays are usually white, banded with 

 pink often of a deep blue, with rose-coloured 

 spines, banded with bright yellow, or speckled 

 with brown and orange. It is fond of rocky shores, 

 and rarer in sandy localities. The Professor re- 

 marks of these brittle-stars, " I have seen a large 

 dredge come up, completely filled with them ; a 

 most curious sight, for when the dredge was emptied, 

 these little creatures, writhing with the strangest 

 contortions, crept about in all directions, often 

 flinging their arms in broken pieces about them, 

 and their snake-like and threatening attitudes 

 were by no means relished by the boatmen, who 

 anxiously asked permission to shoot them over- 

 board, supers titiously remarking, that the things 

 < weren't altogether right/ " These brittle-stars 

 feed on small shell-fish and crabs, and are, in their 

 turn, food for the larger fishes. This species is 

 most brilliantly coloured, and is very general 

 around our shores. 



Another very pretty, though less common 

 species, is the brightly tinted Daisy Brittle-star 

 (Ophiocoma bellis], with its long twisting rays. Its 

 disc presents a surface of intermingled spines and 

 plates, which sufficiently resemble our meadow 

 flower to suggest its name. " Nor," says the 

 writer before alluded to, " is the flower at all de- 

 graded by the comparison, for but few daisies can 

 show such beauty of form and colour, as is pre- 

 sented by this sea-star." 



All the brittle-stars have long slender rays, and 

 some have rays like tendrils, scarcely thicker than 

 twine, and composed of many articulations. They 



