142 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



" legs," a foot or so long. Though doubtful in appearance, 

 more in consonance with the creepy imagery of a nightmare 

 than a reality of the better day, these are merely the shy 

 and innocent brittle stars. They are endowed with such 

 exquisitive sensitiveness that to evade capture they 

 sacrifice, apparently without a pang, their wriggling legs 

 piece by piece, and each piece, large or small, squirms and 

 wriggles. The poet says that when the legs of one of the 

 heroes of " The Chevy Chase " were smitten off, " he fought 

 upon their stumps." The voluntary dismemberment of the 

 brittle star may be even more pitiful — in fact almost com- 

 plete, yet it still strives to pack away its forlorn body in 

 some crevice or hollow of the coral rock. It has been 

 asserted that no one has ever captured by hand a brittle 

 star perfect in all its members. "One bafHed collector," 

 said a highly entertaining London journal recently, " who 

 thought that he had succeeded in coaxing a specimen 

 into a pail, had the mortification of seeing it dismember 

 itself at the last moment, and asserts that the eye which is 

 placed at the end of a limb gave a perceptible wink as he 

 picked up the fragment." 



Here too, most of the " brittle stars " are self-conscious 

 to the point of self-obliteration. But some, though still 

 quite worthy the specific title fragilissma, which science 

 has bestowed upon the tribe, may, if taken up tenderly, be 

 handled without the loss of a single limb, and a limb more 

 or less can hardly be of consequence to a creature which, 

 no greater than half a walnut shell, possesses five, each 

 12 or 14 inches long, and supplied with innumerable feet. 

 Further, so far, none of the vestiges of those that have 

 committed the form of hari-kari, fashionable among the 

 species, has been observed to behave in any way unbecoming 

 the shyest, most retiring and most sensitive of creatures. 

 The brittle star discards its limbs, or the best part of them, 

 in the meekest manner possible. 



To enumerate the smaller and lowlier of the many 

 creatures that live on the coral reef would be a task utterly 

 beyond ordinary capability. The reader must be content 



