34 (Bulletin of the Jhatural History Society. 
Figure. (A) p. 53, (J) pi. I, (K), p. 115, (P) pi. II., (Q> 
Fig. 270, etc. 
Distribution, {a) General to 1,000 fathoms. 
South of 40° N. to Arctic Ocean, all around North Atlantic 
to the English Channel and Ireland, Spitzbergen, Alaska. 
{h) In N. B. waters; — Grand Manan, laminarian zone, 
excessively common, Stini'pson, (D). Eastport, low water to 
twenty fathoms, very common, Verrill, (L), (N). Bay of 
Fnndy, very common, low water to 100 fathoms, Verrill, (Q). 
Abundant in pools on southern coast, Ganong, (X). Common 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Whiteaves, (P). 
This is by far the most abundant, most easily obtained and most 
beautiful and graceful of all our Ophiurans. It exists everywhere upon 
the southern coast, and may be found in large numbers about low- 
water mark by turning over stones and looking under ledges. Its 
disk, which is one-half to three-quarters of an.inch in diameter, is 
pentagonal in shape, bulging out between the rays. It is closely beset 
above with short flattened spines except on the distinct primary and 
radial plates. On the under side the arms spring from near the mouth, 
of w^hich the papillae, six to each angle, and the teeth, are distinctly 
seen. The arms are three to four inches long in the largest specimens. 
The upper arm-plates are oval in form, each being surrounded by a row 
of small supplementary pieces, “seeming like a brooch set in a frame 
of gems,” as Forbes says ; one row, however, is common to two plates 
where the latter are adjacent to one another. Under arm-plates are 
squarish, side arm-plates inconspicuous, but each bearing about six arm- 
spines, so that there are about six on each side of each segment of the 
arm. There is the greatest variation in color, scarcely any two indi- 
viduals being alike in this respect. Mottled with various shades of 
yellow, orange, red, green, almost every conceivable combination of 
patterns involving these colors may be found. 
If one wishes to And them he must look in the most sheltered and 
rocky places, for they hide themselves away in all sorts of nooks and dark 
places. They are exceedingly graceful in their motions, having the 
power of moving their arms in every direction with sinuous snake-like 
ease and rapidity, showing well how the group received its name of 
Ophiurans or Snake-tails. I’hey are greedily eaten by the cod, though 
one would think there could be but little nourishment in their hard 
bodies. In their development they pass through a complicated meta- 
morphosis. The eggs are cast into the water, and after a series of 
changes result in a free swimming easel-shaped larva of complicated 
structure. From a portion of this, near the mouth, the young Ophiuran 
begins to form, absorbing the substance of the larva as it grows. 
