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know not in what manner this could possibly come in contact with food defended by two such large and powerful shells as those with which the oyster is furnished. It has been said, that the tentacula are of use in taking this prey; but this, from their nature, must be entirely fabulous.

Like the other species, these animals breathe by means of a kind of branchiæ or gills, which consist of a fringed substance extending along each ray, and communicating with the stomach. These all unite under a small circular and striated operculum, or cover, which may be observed on the back.

THE ARBORESCENT STAR-FISH*.

This extremely singular species is occasionally found in most seas, but never in great numbers. It has five equi-distant, thickly-jointed processes, which proceed from its centre, each divided into two small ones, and each of these into two others still smaller; and this regular subdivision is continued to a vast extent, and, in the most beautiful gradation of minuteness, till at length the number of extreme ramifications sometimes amounts to several thousands. One specimen, that measured three feet across, had five hundred and twelve extremities to each ray; so that the whole number was 2560. By this most curious structure, the Arborescent Starfish becomes as it were a living net, and by the sudden contraction of its innumerable ramifications, it is capa'ble of catching such creatures as are destined for its prey and the unfortunate object of attack is secured by these, beyond all possibility of escape.

In order to preserve this curious animal whole and undamaged for cabinets, it should be taken far out in the sea; and the fishermen ought to be careful not to break off any of the limbs, and to prevent the animal

*SYNONYMS. Asterias Medusa. Linn.-Magellanic Starfish. Basket-fish. Branched Asterias. Medusa Star-fish.

from contracting and entangling its outer and most slender branches. The fishermen of the Cape of Good Hope procure these Star-fish, and sell them for six, and sometimes even ten rix-dollars each.

When it is alive, or but just dead, the colour of the Arborescent Star-fish is reddish or deep carnation; but, on being dried, it becomes somewhat gray. It should be dried in the shade, in some open place, where the wind has free access to it; for in the sun it is apt to dissolve, and if placed too much in the shade it will become putrid.

OF THE ECHINUS, OR SEA-URCHIN TRIBE.

The Sea-urchins are generally round, and shaped like a somewhat flattened ball. Their exterior is a bony crust, usually furnished with movable spines, by which they are defended from injury, and by means of which they have their progressive motion: these are often very numerous, amounting, in some species, to upwards of two thousand. The mouth is placed beneath, and, in most of the species, has five valves. They are all inhabitants of the sea.

THE COMMON OR EATABLE ECHINUS*.

The spines with which the shell of this animal is covered, are the instruments by which it conveys itself at

• DESCRIPTION. This animal, which lodges in cavities of rocks just beneath low-water mark, on most of the British coasts, is nearly of a globular shape, having its shell marked into ten partitions or divisions, not much unlike those of an orange. The mouth is situated in the lower or under part, and is armed with five strong and sharpened teeth. On the outside of the shell there is a prodigious number of sharp, movable spines, of a dull violet and greenish colour, curiously articulated, like balls and sockets, with tubercles on the surface, and connected by strong ligaments to the skin or epidermis with which the shell is covered.

SYNONYMS. Echinus Esculentus.

Linn.-Eatable Echi

pleasure from one place to another; and by means of these it is enabled to move at the bottom of the water with great swiftness. It generally employs those about the mouth for this purpose, keeping that opening downward; but it is also asserted to have the power of moving forward, by turning on itself like a wheel. When any thing alarms these animals, they immediately move all their spines toward the object, and wait an attack, as an army of pikemen would with their weapons. The number of muscles, fibres, and other apparatus necessary to the proper management of these, are very great, and exceedingly wonderful. So tenacious are the Sea-urchins of the vital principle, that, on opening one of them, it is no uncommon circumstance to observe the several parts of the broken shell move off in different directions. The ancients, according to Oppian, give credence to a circumstance much more wonderful than this:

Sea-urchins, who their native armour boast,

All stuck with spikes, prefer the sandy coast.
Should you with knives their prickly bodies wound,
Till the crude morsels pant upon the ground;
You may e'en then, when motion seems no more,
Departing sense and fleeting life restore.
If in the sea the mangled parts you cast,
The conscious pieces to their fellows haste;
Again they aptly join, their whole compose,
Move as before, nor life nor vigour lose.

Between the spines, and disposed in a longitudinal series on the several divisions or regions of the shell, are an infinite number of very small foramina or holes, communicating with an equal number of tentacula placed above them. They are possessed of a very high degree of contractile power, and are furnished at the extremities with an expansile part, which may be sup

nus. Penn. Common Echinus, or Esculent Echinus. Shaw's Nat. Mis.

posed to operate as a sphincter, or as the tail of a leech, in fastening the animals securely to rocks and other substances to which they choose to adhere.

In Marseilles, and some other towns on the continent, this species of Echinus is exposed for sale in the markets, as oysters are with us, and is eaten boiled like an egg. It forms an article of food among the lower class of people who reside in the neighbourhood of the seacoasts of many parts of this country, but does not seem to have made its way to the tables of the opulent. The Romans adopted it as food, and dressed it with vinegar, mead, parsley, and mint.

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OF THE LEPAS, OR BERNACLE TRIBE.

It is the nature of these animals to adhere in clusters to rocks, shells, the bottoms of ships or floating pieces of wood.

The shells are fixed at the base by a long and flexible kind of neck, and consist of more than two unequal and erect valves. The animal that inhabits them is similar to one which inhabits submarine rocks, and which Linnæus has placed among the Mollusca, under the name of Triton.

THE GOOSE-BEARING BERNACLE t.

There was formerly a strange notion prevalent con

• The Linnean order Testacea, comprises all those Molluscous Worms which are covered with calcareous shells.

+ DESCRIPTION. The shell of the Goose-bearing Bernacles

cerning these shells, that from them was bred a species of goose, common in some parts of our island, called the Bernacle Goose*. Even of late years an attempt was made to impose upon the credulity of the public, by an exhibition in London of a large collection of these shells, as shells from which, as the advertisements stated, the Bernacle Geese were produced.

To the bottoms of ships, and to pieces of floating timber, these Bernacles are sometimes seen adhering in countless numbers. Colonel Montagu observed a piece of fir timber, more than twenty feet long, which was drifted on the coast of Devonshire, and which, from end to end, was completely covered with them. They appear particularly to attach themselves to wood, where they cluster together of all sizes, the smaller adhering, by short pedicles, to the larger ones.

The animals contained in these shells, as well as in those of all the other species, have each twenty-four claws or tentacula, all joined in pairs near the bottom, and inserted into one common base. The twelve longest stand somewhat erect and arched, and arise from the back part of the animal. They appear like so many yellow curled feathers, clear, horny, and articulated. Every joint is furnished with two rows of hairs on the concave side. They are of use in catching prey, and the animals are continually employed in extending and contracting them for this purpose.

The twelve smallest tentacula are placed, six on each side, in front of these. They are more pliable and more thickly set with hairs than the others, and seem to perform the office of hands. The mouth, formed

have each five smooth valves; and of these the dorsal valve is rounded at the sides, and slightly carinate. The shells are about on inch and a half long, and the peduncle or neck two or three inches. The valves are yellow at the margins.

SYNONYMS. Lepas anatifera. Linnæus.-L'Anatife lisse. (Anatifa lævis.) Cuvier. Bosc、

* See the account of this bird, in vol. iii. p. 95.

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