XI, 



SEA-STARS AND THEIR MISCHIEF. 



r I^HE most important enemy to the oyster, at any rate in northerly 

 -*- waters, is the tribe of star-fishes — a group of animals known to 

 everybody who goes to the sea-shore, and interesting in many more ways 

 than simply as a pest to the oyster planter. 



The star-fish passes under various names among the shore-folk. In 

 England he is known as the " cross-fish," " sun-star," and " sea-star." In 

 this country the name most often heard is "five-fingers," north of Cape 

 Cod, and southward of there "star-fish," "sea-star," or simply "star," to 

 which it is abbreviated in the vicinity of New York. His family affini- 

 ties are with the Eohinoderms — " spiny-skins." 



None of these names, however, distinguish between the various spe- 

 cies, except in the case of the "basket-fish" of Massachusetts Bay, which 

 is sufficiently different from the ordinary five-finger to attract everybody's, 

 attention ; and the smaller varieties are often mistaken for the young of 

 a larger sort. 



The common name of the animal well describes its general form. "As 

 there are stars in the sky, so are there stars in the sea," remarked old John 

 Henry Link, a century and more ago. From a central disk of small di- 

 mensions radiate five pointed arms, composed of a tough substance unlike 

 anything else that I remember anywhere in the animal kingdom. " When 

 it is warm in one's hand," wrote Josselyn, that quaintest of America's 

 advertisers, in his "New England's Rarities," "you may perceive a stiff 

 motion, turning down one point and thrusting up another." This was all 

 right, but he adopted an error when he added, " It is taken to be poy- 

 sonous." 



Examining the star-fish more closely, you perceive that it has an upper 

 and a lower side, essentially different. The upper side, or back, presents 

 a rough surface of a greenish, brownish, or reddish-green hue, which, 

 when it is dried, turns to a yellowish-brown. This is the leathery mem- 

 brane covering the skeleton of the animal, which consists of small lime- 



