Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-03-11

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the most interesting animals, and on1
which has very curious habits. Drop
a star-fish into glass filled with sea
water, and watch it for few moments.
If it happens to drop on its back, enc
| of the five arms, which seem so rlgld
when taken from the water, will begin
| to bend, scores of small suckers WILL
begin to fasten themselves upon the
bottom of the tank, and soon the star
will be right side up.
He is restless creature when IN an
| aquarium, and will continually rove
| about in search of something TO eat.
He moves about with slow, regular
motion, which at first seems mystic
rious. There is no irregular motion,
as in walking, but simply slow pro-
pulsion along the bottom or up the
sides of the tank, as If pushed on by
some continual pressure from behind.
In moment he mounts the perpendic-
| ular side, and, through the transparent
glass, we have an opportunity to see
how he moves. In the certer OF each
arm there is depression, and in each
depression there are several rows OF
pure white suckers, extending from
the base. to the tip of the ARIA These
are his locomotive organs, and well DO
they serve the purpose. There are
hundreds of them, elastic yet muscu-
lar, all working at the same time to
propel the creature along. One loosens
its hold, stretches itself out and
takes another hold an eighth OF an
inch further up. Others follow, and
the creature moves. 1t is held firmly,
yet at the sumo time is continually
moving.
How can these, cozntless hundreds
of little feet all be worked by one
small being so low i'm the animal king
dom? To do this the creature hasa
most wonderful arrangement not un-
like system of water works. There
is tank, which he has always filed
with water pure: and clear, and
strained from all foreign particles In
it's passage through the brightly COL
ored sieve-like maIrepore plate. From
this tank there are five tubes, each
leading into one of the arms, and from
these main tubes countless numbers Of
small ones branch off TO form the SUCK
ers., BY filling or drawing off the
water the suckers are detached, or
made to cling to a surfaee.in manner
very like boys leather sucker.
But see, it is approaching mussel
that is hanging by its finely woven
byssus to the side of the tank. Can it
have designs upon this shell-fishp
Straight toward it the star moves; it
nears the mussel; the forward sucker
touches the shell; the star hesitates
than moves on faster than be-
fore. One arm has passed. over the
and the mouth of the star-fish
is just over the center of the shell.
Surely it can do no harm to this we'll
defended: shell-ish. Its mouth is so
small thattit can not swallow the mus
sci, and surely it can not bore into the
hard she'll.
The star-fish has stopped, the five
arms are curled around the mussel,
and it is held in strong embrace. We
watch the star-tish with renewed inter-
est but all we see is the same motion
nothing to indicate change. The star
seems satisfied to remain as it is, as If
at rest. Soon thin membranes encir-
Giles the mussel, but nothing further is
seen. We revisit the aquarium at the
end of an hour. and the star is in the
same position; at the end of two hours
there is no change; but in three hours
we return to see the star-fiSh nestled in
the darkest corner of the aquarium,
while the unfortunate mussel hangs in
it's old position, quite dead, the she'll
gaping open, and numerous little
shrimp feeding on the half-digested
parts left by the destructive star-fish..
What has BEEN donep Simply this:
the star-fsh, unable to take the shell
into its stomach, has accommodated
itself to circumstances, and extended
it's stomach out of its mouth, and di-
gested the shell-ffsh with its stomach
entirely outside of its body. In this
silent manner hordes of star-fish i'm
wade oyster beds, and in single night
destroy thousands. The oystermen,
their destructive power,
had the stupid habit Of cut
ting every star-fish that they caught
into three or four pieces and returning
them to the water, not knowing that
each piece had the power of reproduce
ing itself. and that, for each star thus
torn into three or four pieces, two or
three new individuals were formed
Ralph s. Tarr, IN Congregationalist.