Five-Fingered Jack on the Oyster. 45 
inwardness of the proceeding. The oyster is seized between 
the arms of the Star-fish and held under its mouth by the 
aid of its suckers. Thus secured, the Asterias, or Star-fish, 
everts its stomach, and envelops the whole oyster in its in- 
terior recesses, distilling a poisonous fluid, a secretion from 
its mouth, which causes the oyster to open its shell, when 
the robber, as it were, crawls in and takes its dessert. In- 
credible numbers of oysters are destroyed by Star-fishes, 
but the oystermen fail to see that their own barbaric ignor- 
ance is largely to blame. Star-fishes drawn up in nets, rakes 
and dredges in immense quantities are tied into bundles, but 
the cords are made so tight that the pile is cut in twain, the 
result being that all the pieces, when afterwards thrown over- 
board, become new and perfect Star-fishes. 
Not often has one the pleasure of meeting with these ani- 
mals on the New Jersey coast, but yet they are occasionally 
seen, more frequently, perhaps, in the North. Asverzas bery- 
linus, the commoner form, is a fairly large species, of a more 
or less greenish color, sometimes waning to brown, and 
roughly covered with tubercles. Its five arms, at the ex- 
tremity of each of which is situated a single red-eye speck, 
