CH. VI MABINE FAUNA OF TALIS SE SHOBES 109 



and delicate creatures the feather-stars (Crinoids) were 

 occasionally found in the dredge. It was impossible to 

 capture a siagle perfect specimen of these. Their long, 

 graceful arms and deUcate pinnge were invariably more or 

 less broken in the journey from the bottom of the sea, and 

 when I handled them for examination or preservation it 

 was never unattended by fm'ther damage. One day, off 

 Likupang, I thought I would keep one of these feather-stars 

 to watch and observe in the living state ; -so I put it in a 

 large bucket of water and left it in the darkest, coolest place 

 I could find on board untU the afternoon. When I came 

 back again to look at it, I found my Antedon had broken 

 itself into a thousand little pieces ; every joint of its long 

 arms had separated from its neighbour, and there the 

 beautiful creature lay, at the bottom of the bucket, like the 

 block puzzles of the nursery, every piece in its right position, 

 and yet with no cohesion between the pieces. One of the most 

 striking peculiarities of the feather-stars is their briUiant 

 colour. Anyone who has seen a hving specimen of our 

 own British feather-star, Antedon rosaceus — a form which 

 often comes up with the trawls and lobster-pots on the 

 western coast of Scotland, and is not uncommon in some 

 locaUties in the English Channel — must have been struck 

 with its brilliant rosy colour. This colouring-matter is sol- 

 uble in alcohol, so that when the animal is preserved in spirit 

 all its colour is dissolved out into the alcohol. The colour- 

 ing-matter of Antedon has received the name antedonin. 

 Similarly, the deep-sea crinoids have a colouring-matter of 

 their own, which has been called pentacrinin, after Penta- 

 crinus, one of the stalked crinoids found in deep water. 

 The crinoids of Talisse Sea are not less conspicuous for 

 their brilliant colours, some being rosy red like Antedon, 

 some of a deep rich claret colour, and some of a bright 

 green chlorophyll colour. As I am now upon the subject 



