SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
137 
Some time ago I had a beautiful thirteen rayed sunstar 
in my tank, beside which I deposited a razor -fish, for 
convenience, for a time. Soon I saw the hand over hand 
movements of the starfish begin, and, in a few minutes, the 
poor razor-fish was in the clutches of the enemy. Taking 
the top point of the long valves, he wound himself round 
and down the shells until he clutched them, just in the 
same fashion as the hand grasps a round-headed walking 
stick. The poor thing very soon felt the wicked fangs 
inserted into its savoury flesh or body, and made great 
efi"orts to escape, but it was out of its native sands, and the 
powerful hood-shaped foot had nothing to burrow in and 
drag itself free The round, sharp, calcareous mouth and 
jaws cut like a circular saw; and it matters not what sort of 
prey comes his way, dead or alive, if he can settle upon it, 
he will have his satisfaction. Out of his capacious stomach 
I have taken a specimen of his neighbour here, the prickly 
urchin, as large as an ordinary sized plum, swallowed 
entire, without the rejection of a prickle, these, along with 
the broken shell, always being ejected after having been 
separated from the soft parts. Besides being the good 
scavenger he is, the starfish is one of the fixed provisions of 
providence for keeping down the overproduction of other 
vampires. Nevertheless he is himself, when very young, 
preyed upon for the same purpose by the flounder, haddock, 
whiting, and other ground fish ; hence the need of keeping, 
by law, the inner waters of our seas and estuaries from being 
depleted of those fish by beam trawlers, otherwise the star- 
fish will become the pest of our seas, and particularly the 
coast line of our bays and channels. 
Prosecuting our search, we cross over again to the shore, 
south of the lighthouse, keeping as near to the lip of the 
sea as the rocks and boulders will permit. Near the 
