NATURAL HISTORY OP THE STAR-FISH. 
211 
following morning, June 28, a great many fry were swimming at the surface of the 
water. From this date until July 10 they could be taken at any time, unless con- 
ditions were particularly unfavorable. The few larva? caught on July 16, however, were 
old, and all of them set in the aquarium during the next 12 hours. After this no more 
larvrn could be obtained, though the next few days were exceptionally favorable. 
It is evident, therefore, that in Kickemuit Eiver the season during which the 
star-fish larva; set in considerable numbers began about Juue 28 and ended about 
July 10, a period of a little less than three weeks. Allowing that the larvae set three 
weeks after the spawn is laid (which is the period given by Ingersoll), we may conclude 
that the beginning of the spawning season was about June 7, and the end June 28, 
while the height of the season was the first, and possibly the second, week in June. 
From the observations of the sexual glands of the adults, it appeared that the greater 
part of the spawn was extruded between the 4th and 10th of June. The facts, therefore, 
obtained by both of these methods agree very closely. 
From Dr. Seitaro Goto, of Tokyo, Japan, who worked in Mr. Agassiz’s laboratory 
at Newport in 1895, 1 have obtained the following interesting data. For one or two 
days before Jul 3 " 15 the larvae had been very numerous. On the 15th they were 
decreasing in number, and after July 20 none were found. At Newport in 1895, there- 
fore, the breeding season was nearly the same as that at the Kickemuit Eiver in 1898. 
At any time in the year a few star fishes may be found which contain ripe eggs 
and spermatozoa, but it is not known that these eggs are laid out of season. If they 
are, the chance of their becoming fertilized is small. Dr. Goto writes me that a similar 
phenomenon is seen in a Japanese species of sea-urchin. He is able to obtain ripe 
eggs and sperm, and to fertilize the eggs artificially, even in the midst of winter, 
though the species probably does not breed in these waters at that season. 
To answer briefly the ninth question we may say: The stars in the upper part of 
Narragansett Bay, and probably throughout the bay, have a short spawning season, 
beginning about the second week in June and continuing two or three weeks. The 
young fry begin to set the last week in June and continue to set until the middle of 
July. The fact that ripe stars may be obtained in very small numbers throughout 
the year is of no practical significance, for if they lay their eggs out of season the 
chances are comparatively slight of their being fertilized. 
Observations were made at Woods Hole from March to the end of the summer 
I is rather difficult to interpret the results satisfactorily, for at no one period were 
more than a small proportion of the stars at Woods Hole ripe, or even approaching a 
ripe condition, and, on the other hand, a few ripe specimens could be found at any 
time. As a rule the sexual glands were very small, like those of the Narragansett 
Bay stars in midwinter, and it was noticeable also that in such specimens the digestive 
glands were also unusually small. The latter condition I take to be an indication of 
poor nourishment, judging from the condition of poorly fed stars kept in confinement 
as compared with well-nourished specimens. I am inclined, therefore, to assign the 
failure to breed to the same cause. 
In this connection 1 may observe that in the specimens kept over winter at 
Kickemuit, with very little to eat, the sexual glands did not approach a ripe condi- 
tion. An examination of stars taken in February and March from Narragansett Bay 
shows that by this season of the year they are eating voraciously, shells and even 
fragments of star-fish being found in their stomachs. In some years the stars have 
bred in abundance at Woods Hole, but the notes on the time of breeding are some- 
what puzzling, as they indicate that the time varies considerably. 
