332 



THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



spheres, but are found largest in the tropical ocean. In 

 our own waters they are very abundant, and are among the 

 most curious and beautiful game pursued by 

 the dredger. 



The British Ophiuridae belong to two 

 generic types, that of the Ophiurce and that 

 of the Euryales. The former, to which the 

 sand and brittle-stars belong, have simple 

 arms ; the latter, arms ramifying into many 

 processes. 



The rays of the Sand-stars have a whip-likt 

 or lizard-tail appearance, while those of the 

 Brittle-stars look like so many centipedes or 

 annelides attached at regular distances round 

 a little sea-urchin. We have ten native brittle- 

 stars, the most common of which (Ophiocoma 

 rosula, Forbes) is also one of the handsomest, 

 presenting every variety of variegation, and 

 the most splendid displays of vivid hues ar- 

 ranged in beautiful patterns. Not often are 

 two specimens found coloured alike. It is 

 the most brittle of all brittle-stars, separating itself into 

 pieces with wonderful quickness and ease. Touch it, and 

 it flings away an arm; hold it, and in a moment not an 

 arm remains attached to the body. " The common brittle- 

 star," says Edward Forbes, "often congregates in great num- 

 bers on the edges of scallop-banks, and I have seen a large 

 dredge come up completely filled with them; a most curi- 

 ous sight, for when the dredge was emptied, these little 

 creatures, writhing with the strangest contortions, crept about 

 in all directions, often flinging their arms in broken pieces 

 around them; and their snake-like and threatening attitudes 

 were by no means relished by the boatmen, who anxiously asked 

 permission to shovel them overboard, superstitiously remarking 

 that the thirjgs weren't altogether right." 



Fancy the naturalist's vexation, who has no other means of 

 preserving a brittle-star entire than by quickly plunging it into 

 cold fresh water, which acts as a poison on the Ophiurae as well 

 as on most other marine animals, and kills them' so instan- 



Sand-8tar. 



