46 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE. 
THE STAR-FISH AND SEA-URCHIN FIGHT 
The star-fish is a soft-mouthed animal, with- 
out anything in the way of teeth or jaws, but 
it is a thoroughgoing carnivore. It does much 
harm on the oyster-beds, engulfing the small 
oysters in its capacious protrusible stomach. 
It is fond of mussels, and it can actually open 
the valves by hunching itself up above the 
mussel and persistently pulling in opposite 
directions with the suctorial tube-feet of two 
of its arms. But who would think of a star-fish 
tackling a small sea-urchin, covered all over 
with spines like a hedgehog, and equipped 
with hundreds of little snapping blades (called 
pedicellarie), like scissors with three blades. 
When these snapping spines are touched, they 
clinch; and some of them are poisonous. 
Nothing daunted, if we dare use such a 
phrase in regard to an animal that has not a 
vestige of brains, not even one nerve-centre, 
the star-fish lays one of its arms on the prickly 
sea-urchin. The hundreds of tube-feet on the 
under surface of the arm are promptly nipped 
by the sea-urchin’s snapping spines. The star- 
fish withdraws its arm, and the snapping 
spines, unable to let go, are wrenched off. 
