44 Life and Immortality. 
The Star-fish, not unlike all other animals of the sea, has 
an appetite that is never satisfied. Dinner is always welcome. 
The procurement of food seems its chief concern in life. It 
is a scavenger of no mean importance, keeping up an inces- 
sant chase after all kinds of dead animal matter, and thus 
largely contributing, it is probable, towards the maintaining 
of the waters of the ocean in a state of purity. But its 
feeding is not exclusively restricted to decaying matters. 
Any species of mollusk, from the humble whelk, not more 
than five-eighths of an inch in length, to the lordly oyster, 
so esteemed by epicures, constitutes a dainty tidbit. No more 
inveterate ravager and brigand, not even excepting man 
himself, have the oyster-beds to disturb the equanimity and 
serenity of their existence than the audacious, insinuating 
Star-fish. 
With its five arms, and apparently without any other 
organ, this comparatively insignificant little being accom- 
plishes a work which man, without the aid of extraneous 
appliances, is quiet unable to execute. It opens an oyster 
as deftly and effectually as an expert oysterman would do, 
and that, too, without the habitual oyster-knife, and swallows 
the slimy bivalve in the same manner as the lords of creation 
do. Man, with all his genius and skill, were he deprived of all 
other means of subsistence than the oyster, and having no 
implement with which to open it, would be severely puzzled 
to get at the savory morsel shut up in its obstinate valves, 
yet the Star-fish performs the task seemingly without the 
least difficulty. 
How the Star-fish manages the problem was at first a mat- 
ter of guess-work. For a long time it was confidently 
believed that the animal waited for the moment when the 
oyster opened its shell to introduce one of its arms into 
the opening. This much gained, the other four arms were 
got in without much trouble, and the whole business ended — 
with the devouring of the inmate. This belief is no longer 
tenable. Careful observation has revealed to us the true 
