ASTROPHYTON. 117 



ing to that which it occupies in the young Star-fish ; this plate 

 is one of the large circular shields occupying the interambulacral 

 spaces around the mouth. (Fig. 149.) On each side of the arms, 

 where they join the disk, are slits opening into the ovarian pouches. 

 They have no teeth ; but the hard ridge at the oral end of the 

 ambulacra, extending toward the mouth in Star-fish, is still more 

 distinct and sharper in the Ophiurans, approaching more nearly 

 the character of teeth. 



Astrophyton. {AstrophyUm AgassizU Stimp.) 



A singular species of Ophiuran, known among fishermen as the 

 " Basket-fish," (Pig. 161,) is to be found in Massachusetts Bay. 

 Its arms are very long in comparison to the size of the disk, and 

 divide into a vast number of branches. In moving, the animal 

 lifts itself on the extreme end of these branches, standing as it 

 were on tiptoe (Mg. 151), so that the ramifications of the arms 

 form a kind of trellis-work aU around it, reaching to the ground, 

 while the disk forms a roof. In this living house with latticed 

 walls small fishes and other animals are occasionally seen to take 

 shelter ; but woe to the little shrimp or fish who seeks a refiige 

 there, if he be of such a size as to offer his host a tempting mouth- 

 ful ; he will fkre as did the fly who accepted the invitation of 

 the spider. These animals are exceedingly voracious, and some- 

 times, in their greediness for food, entangle themselves in fishing 

 lines or nets. When disturbed, they coil their arms closely around 

 the mouth, assuming at such times a kind of basket-shape, fi"om 

 which they derive their name. 



This Basket-fish is honorably ccmnected with our early colonial 

 history, being thought worthy, by no less a personage than John 

 Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, who, as he says, " had never 

 seen the like," to be sent with " other natural curiosities of these 

 parts " to the Royal Society of London, in 1670. He accom- 

 panies the specimen with a minute description, omitting " other 

 particulars, that we may reflect a little upon this elaborate piece 

 of nature." His account is as graphic as it is accurate, and we 

 can hardly give a better idea of the animal than by extracting 

 some portions of it. " This Pish," he says, " spreads itself from 



