216 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



a distance of about three inches, moving irresolutely to and fro. 

 It will be observed that again it was A which suffered itself to be 

 driven off by B, although the former is slightly the larger of the 

 two Starfishes. I thought on the first occasion that the retreat 

 of A might be due to its being unable, with its everted and 



therefore vulnerable stomach, to bear the thrusting action of B, 

 the latter not having the disadvantage at that time of an everted 

 stomach. The return and second retreat of A, when the 

 conditions were reversed, seem to show that this apparent 

 explanation is the wrong one, and I can only now suppose that 

 B is a stronger and more vigorous animal than A. 



I was not able to note the behaviour of the Starfishes at any 

 time during the remainder of the day, but on the next morning 

 I found Starfish B, perfectly still, at the opposite end of the 

 aquarium, about two feet away from the Pipe-fish, while Star- 

 fish A was straddling over the latter, which it quitted at 

 10.15 a.m. I had now reluctantly to remove the decomposing 

 body of the fish, which was beginning to make the water foul 

 and cloudy, and consequently I could not make any further obser- 

 vations upon the behaviour of the Starfishes with the Pipe-fish. 



I pointed out in my April report that those parts of the 

 Pipe-fishes over which a Starfish had sat were digested and 

 skeletonized. This Broad-nosed Pipe-fish had not been so well 

 cleaned, partly no doubt because it was a bigger animal, but 

 possibly also because the two Starfishes had each moved the 

 Pipe-fish so much that neither had been able to press its 

 stomach tightly enough upon the food. The fish had lost only 

 a portion of the contents of its abdomen, together with patches 

 of skin from the snout, head, and parts of the tail. Neither of 

 the Starfishes had been fed for two days before that on which 

 they began to eat the Pipe-fish, 



