The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1891-11-16
A COMPLEX CREATURE.
Some of the Remarkable Traits of the
Starfish.


Some of the Remarkable Traits of the
Starfish.
''The attack of a starfsh upon an
oyster may be ikened to an assault by
organized conspirators, inasmuch as
each of these fve-fngered animals is
composed of five distinct individuals, y
said a scientist to Washington Star
man. Each of the starfsh's five arms
| has its own mind, nervous system and
thoughts, such as they are, and all five
nerve systems simply meet in the CEN
ter where the arms are joined Thus it
may be said that the mental guidance
of this complex creature and the man.
agement of its affairs are intrusted to a
board of five members, who have COM
munication with each other, but act
without the intermediation of a pre-
siding officer. Now, is it not wonder
full that such quintet should be able
to manage its affairs so well and with
such agreement of purpose in every
thing? Supposing that each of the
five individuals attempted to go where
it listed without giving any heed to the
others, the animal could not reach a
choice bit of food, espied from afar
with the eye of one of its members, nor
travel in any direction with purpose
in view. But as matter of fact,
proved by observation, when a stalfish
is spying for food it lifts the end of its
five arms so that the eye beneath each
extremity may get view of things in
the neighborhood, and if any object
worth going after is discovered all the
many hundreds of suclzer-like feet
beneath the five arms are seen to push
out together in the direction of the
morsel desired. There is unity of in
tention among the partners that i'm
plies Enthusiastically a conscious sharing
of aim and design. The same thing is
shown by the way many starfishes have
of letting themselves drop from steep
rocks and cliffs in order to save the
trouble of laborious climbing down In
such cases, before they relinquish
their hold and drop, they let 90 with
three or four arms, holding fast until
The last moment with the remaining, as /
if to calculate the leap.
MY observations on this subject |
have inclined me to think that matters |
of concerted action with starfsh have |
not infrequently to be effected by first |
obtaining the assent of an Individual |
ray that is willing 1t is known that |
these creatures sometimes divide them
selves voluntarily into three-armed |
and two-armed portion, which may
be regarded as the violent dissolution
of business and domestic relations once
happy, but grown inharmonious. A
starfsh will often cast off one Of its
arms and leave it behind, perhaps be-
cause the member is not found agree
able to live with. If rubber band or
string is fastened around an arm of one
of these animals and it cannot push the
off with its other arms the
starfish will throw the troublesome
arm away, not desiring to retain the
of such cripple. Star
fish are like human beings in many
ways. Then the animal which has
thus deprived itself of ray grows Il
new one in place of the old.
''As for the arm that is dropped it
promptly proceeds to grow four new
rms, thus becoming a whole sta-fish
itself. Beng Une biggest 1t Is pre-
5umably for long time the boss of the
i've, which must be gratifying. A few
years ago people who caught starfish in
n the oyster beds destroyed them, as
hey thought, by cutting them in halves
md throwing them overheard, but the
process was not very effective, mas
much as everyone thus treated prompt
y becomes two" {