Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1896-02-19
THE GREEDY STARFlSH.
A Wonderful Feeder With an Appetite
For Oysters In the Shell.

For oysters In the smell.
The gray bearded captain of ,
dredgeboats sat summing himself OF
the quarter rail of his craft, and hi
was telling a visitor some fact!
about that pest of the oyster plant
er's life, the starfsh. cts queer
mighty queer, said he, "to see how
little the average we'll educated mar
knows about the creatures one gets
to know so we'll in my line of bust
ness. Take starfish, for example
Here, this very morning, thir
faced chap, who wore speotaoles and
acted for all the world like a school
master, picked up one of the dead
stars on the pier there and asked me
if had amy with the root and stalk
attached.
ST suppose I looked stupid for q
minute or two, because he informed
me next that those were the bios
SONS of a very beautiful sea plant.
I was mad at his dumb ignorance
and told him my men were so hur-
ried when they hoed and weeded
them out from the oyster plants
that they generally broke the stems.
eyes, sir, the star is a beautiful
and a wonderfully made animal.
When you pick it out of the dredge
and hold it up, it seems utterly help
less. Yet no creature in the sea is
more tenacious of life, more cum
ming or more destructive of the life
around it. It's greed is almost past
human belief.
Every few fishes, so far as can be
learned, prey upon them, the storms
seldom tear them from their deep
hiding places, and they multiply
with astonishing rapidity. If some
irate crab or lobster bites off one of
the star s rays, a new growth speed
lily replaces the old one. It's digest
i've system is so powerful that be-
side it the cast iron organs of the os
trioh seem as the stomach of a weak
dyspeptio. Oyster shells, the most
fatal and indestruotible morsels
which can assail the insides of any
land animal, do not cause the star
moment of distress.
SIT seems to scent food or prey
from a long way off. AS you look
down on a shoal oyster bed you can
see big star from a point 100 feet
away change his course and go
straight to where a fat oyster lies.
Their gliding movements are
stealthy, but swift Once they fall
upon the tbivalve its days-yes, it's
minutes-are numbered. You see
the underside of this fellow-the
bright, yellow side, I mean. The
back, as you notice, is purple, COW
cred with blunt spines. Well, those
long narrow Sits radiating from the
center are the mouth and stomach
combined. The star simply opens
itself-lays bare it's eternal eoono-
my, SO to speak-and, Unfolding the
hard shelled victim, stretches itself
back, having wrapped up the food
as storekeeper wraps up bundle
in paper.
Then the star crawls away to
some secluded spot and let's the
whole thing digest. The shells and
other irritating substances do not
seem to inconvenience him in the
least. When he has sucked all the
nutriment from the oyster, he un-
folds the package and disgorges the
shells, sand and gravel. He is then
ready for fresh meal.
1.-The damage they do US is meal
culable. Wrinkles, drills, drumfsh
and poaohing fishermen all annoy
us, but they are nothing when COM
pared with these five pointed ras-
Gals. But with all that, still I ad-
miro them. Their untiring care of
the baby stars until big enough to
shift for themselves, their knowing
ways in time of danger and their
quick hunting instincts all command
the respect even of an enemy. If
those college chaps would study the
stars of the sea more-there ere
some 40 varieties the stars of
the sky less, they wouldn't get such
stiff necks. New York World.