erably; they deposit their spawn in suitable localities, and especially upon sandy shores exposed to the solar rays; it is this spawn, we are told, which renders mussels dangerous as food at a certain season of the year. On shores where they are very abundant, the country people collect them to manure the ground: it is the only advantage which man can derive from them.

Lost Limbs Growing Out Again.

The most remarkable feature in the organization of the asterias is their power of reproduction. One, two, three of their rays may be crushed without endangering not only their existence, but even the integrity of the individual. Provided that but one remains attached to the central disk, these losses are easily repaired. It seems that in certain cases the shedding and renewal of the rays are spontaneous. This marvelous faculty would seem to indicate, among the asteriæ, a very intense vitality. One cause of death, however, they cannot withstand for many hours; namely, banishment from the sea. Left by the ebb upon the shore, they cannot live. Even in the captivity of the aquaria they sicken and die, either for want of prey, or because they miss the movement of the incessantly renewed waters.

A common species, found on the coasts of New England, and generally called "five fingered Jack," are but walking stomachs; their office in the economy of nature being to devour all kinds of garbage, which would otherwise accumulate on the shores. They eat also living crustaceans, mollusks, and even small fish, and are believed to be very destructive to oysters. They are not used as food.

The common star-fish of the North American coast is considered to be the same as the European species. The colors vary from reddish to yellowish, and the diameter from an inch to more than a foot. The snake, or sand star is another species. In most seas a very singular species, the arborescent star-fish is found.

A Wonder of Bodily Construction.

It is a pleasant sight when one of these animals is placed in a glass vessel containing sea-water, and its various movements are attentively watched. Then it will be seen that it has, in fact, several hundreds of the sucker-like legs, each one a perfect tube, which, when the animal wishes, becomes filled and extended, while the fluid is as readily withdrawn into the vesicles of the body. We have heard of Argus with his hundred eyes, and of Briareus with his hundred hands, but we are not told that each eye could find a separate object to contemplate, or that each hand could be employed in some distinct manipulation. It seems, however, as if each

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leg of this animal had an independent action, being capable of darting out in various directions, as if, like a living lever, it were seeking the best fulcrum, to render its highest service to the movement now taking place.

In the possession of a sea-star it is very easy to witness its voracity; for only let a morsel of fish or of a mollusk be placed within reach, and thither it will go clasping the prey as soon as it is gained with its rays, and absorbing it into the stomach, to which there is an opening on the other side. In the eagerness it thus manifests it fulfills its appointed destiny. It is one of the scavengers of nature, ordinarily working silently in the deep waters, devouring, from tide to tide, the ever-accumulating matter, which, left undisturbed, would destroy every species of life. So strong is the predilection of these creatures for garbage, that the angler has frequently wished they would suspend their vocation, since scarcely has the baited hook sank to the bottom of the water than he has felt “a bite," only to find that he has caught a sea-star—a luckless beginning, perhaps, of a series of disappointments the same in kind.

Oysters Suddenly Paralyzed.

Might we suggest a banquet for a party of sea-stars, it should be the contents of an oyster barrel, without any specification of the spot where it was filled. "But how," it may be asked, " can their shells be opened? In what way can the resistance of the abductor muscles be overcome? Where is the oyster-knife of the sea-star for the banquet you propose?"

And assuredly it is not, as Appian imagined, in one of its rays. The supposition of the ancients that the sea-star, like a besieging force, took up a position that would sccure the best point of attack, and, seizing the moment in which the oyster unwarily opened, however slightly, the valves of his shell, thrust in a ray, gradually insinuated its whole body, and so devoured the assailed-a notion which was also entertained by Bishop Spratt has proved to be utterly fabulous. For, having reached an oyster by its locomotive power, and placed itself on its prey, it pours out a paralyzing fluid, and instils it between the shells; as soon as they are open, the stomach is thrust in, and the captive is devoured, however long his house may have been his castle.

A sea-star was found clinging round a shell-fish which was pierced with a hole, through which the creature had inserted a sucker, and this aperture was attributed to the invader. But we have no proof that this animal possesses any boring power. The probability is, therefore, as Professor Forbes suggests, that the hole was pierced by a marine worm and that the sea-star, in this instance, was merely "sounding with its sucker the prospect of a meal."

Polyp was a name formerly applied to the three classes of radiata, the coral animals, jelly-fishes and echinoderms; it is now generally restricted to the first class, called zoophytes. Polyps are radiated animals usually attached at the base with a coronet of tentacles above and a toothless mouth at the centre and an inner alimentary cavity, to which the mouth

CURIOUS POLYP.

is the only opening. They reproduce by buds or eggs and possess no special organs of sense. The Monoxeina Darwinii, which our illustration represents, was discovered and described by Prof. Hæckel, of the University of Jena. The actinia or sea anemone is the type of this class, the different kinds of actinia and coral polyps having the same general shape and structure. They are of a somewhat oblong form and when closed resemble a truncated cone. They are fixed by the base and from the upper part of their body occasionally extend several tentacles, which are arranged in regular circles. The mouth is situated at the top in the centre of the tentacles. They are capable of varying their figure, but when their tentacles are fully expanded, they have the appearance of full-blown flowers. Many of them are of very beautiful and brilliant color. They feed on shellfish and other marine animals, which they draw into their mouth by means of their arms and they eject the shells and other indigestible parts through the same opening.

The mouth of these animals is capable of great extension so as to allow them without injury to swallow very large shells. The whole interior of their body is one cavity or stomach. They have the power of progressive motion, but this is extremely slow and is said to be performed by loosing their base from the rock, reversing their body and using their tentacles as legs.