9 o 
LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
You will at first be puzzled to think how this 
feather-like fixed animal can be a star-fish at all, but if 
you examine it carefully, you will find that it is indeed 
one, only turned upside down. Its back, which is 
held down to the rock by some claws (c] which grow 
upon it, forms a cup in which lie the soft parts of its 
Fig. 38. 
The life of the Feather-Star. 
A, Young of the Feather-Star before it has separated from its stem. 
B, Full-grown Feather- S tar. * r, Rays, f, Claws, m, Mouth. 
body, with a mouth (;), in the middle, of course 
turned upwards, and surrounded by tentacles. Its 
five arms have divided each into two, making ten 
stony jointed rays (r), and on these a number of 
finer jointed filaments give the appearance of feathers. 
Within a groove of each arm lie the feet-tubes, but they 
have no suckers, for the feather-star rarely walks, and 
then only wriggles in a clumsy manner, something 
* Antedon (Coma tula) rosacea. 
