1907] Jennings. — Behavior ejf the Starfish. 93 



not. The tube feet merely pull the food away from the pedi- 

 cellariae, the latter meanwhile holdino- on stoutly. As we have 

 before noted, objects can usually be pulled out of the jaws before 

 the stalk of the pedicellaria breaks, and this is what happens 

 when the food is taken by the tube feet. 



The tube feet are frequently compelled to do much feeling 

 about before they find the object seized by the pedicellariae. 

 No irresistible tropism bears them straight to the food. A typi- 

 cal example of their action in firding food is the following: A 

 bit of crab flesh was placed on the dorsal surface of a ray near 

 its tip ; here it was seized by the pedicellariae. Now the tube feet 

 came from beneath the ray and began to feel about in all direc- 

 tions. Some gradually began feeling upward, around the ray. 

 The movement in this direction increased, the tube feet coming 

 up especially from one side of the ray, and extending over the 

 dorsal surface and the other side. Now the tip of the ray began 

 to turn in the same direction in which the tube feet were reaching, 

 — this movement of course neither aiding nor hindering the at- 

 tainment of the food, since the food and the tube feet were moved 

 the same distance in the same direction. At the same time the 

 tip of the ray was raised and waved about, bending mainly to 

 the side toward which the tube feet were reaching. Finally, 

 among all these varied movements, some of the tube feet suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the bit of meat; then many more were at 

 once applied to it, and in about four seconds it had been trans- 

 ferred to the ventral side of the ray and was traveling toward 

 the mouth. 



There are two main methods of conveying food to the mouth. 

 Large objects are usually carried by the active bending of the 

 ray beneath the body, till the object is applied to the mouth, as 

 described above in our account of the capture of a crab. Small 

 pieces of flesh are transported in a somewhat different manner. 

 After being carried to the ventral side of the ray, near its tip. 

 perhaps the ray bends downward and under at precisely the 

 point where the fo(Kl body touches it, so as to bring the food 

 into contact with a point on the lower surface of the ray nearer 

 the disk. The tube feet of this nearer point then seize the flesh 

 while the more distal ones release it. Now the point at present 



