The Echinodermata of Jhew Brunswick. 37 
Distributioj^’. (a) General; — Littoral to 208 fathoms. 
Long Island Sound to Labrador, European Seas [if identical 
with A. riihens]. 
(h ) In N. B. ivaters; — Grand Manan, large and common, 
just below low-water mark, Stimpso7i, (D). Eastport and 
Grand Manan, abundant and large among rocks at iow water, 
Verrill, (L). Eastport, Verrill, (N). Bay of Fundy, above 
low water mark to forty fathoms, very abundant, Verrill (Q), 
Passamaquoddy Bay, common everywhere, Ganong, (X). 
Shediac, on oyster beds, and other parts of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, Whiteaves, (P). Very abundant everywhere on the 
southern coast, and by far the most common species. At Bar 
Island, near the mouth of L’Etang harbor, particularly abun- 
dant and large. 
A description of this species for purposes of identification is scarcely 
needed. It is typically the Starfish of our coasts and is abundant almost 
everywhere on the rocks in clear water. The five long ra,ys with their 
short blunt spines, surrounded by rings of pedicellarite, four regular 
rows of tube-feet, radiately-striated madreporic body and other char- 
acters of the species soon become familiar to the student. When adult 
it can be confounded with no other species upon our coast, though the 
identification of young specimens is not always eas}\ In color it is 
“usually reddish, purplish, or violet, varying to yellow and brown, but 
with a pale buff or cream-colored madreporic plate.”* But the color 
and even the form of the animal varies with the sex, “season, state of 
the ovaries, age, dilation with water, etc.” * The very large specimens 
found near the mouth of L’Etang harbor are either a pale purple, red, 
a cream color, yellow or a dull green. Verrill says (L) that in the Bay 
of Fundy it grows to be fifteen inches in diameter and upwards. The 
specimens at L’Etang, which are the largest the writer has seen, are a 
little over a foot in diameter. 
The habits of this species can be easily studied. It is very hardy and 
will live for some time in glass vessels of water, and thrive under con- 
ditions which would quickly prove fatal to deep-water forms. In the 
tide-pools near low-water mark their method of locomotion, taking food, 
etc., may be readily seen, and in the glass vessels may be tried upon 
them many simple experiments which will readily suggest themselves 
to the earnest student. 
Specimens are often found with only four, three, two, or even one 
perfect ray, and with the others either small or quite wanting. A care- 
* Verrill (S). 
