eat and not always resisted, for wire would buy anything the natives
had to sell. But after a great deal of energy this wire-stealing has
been stamped out, and it is to be hoped it may be a thing of the past.

PEEPS INTO NATURE'S NURSERIES.

VI.--THE CHILDHOOD OF THE STARFISH AND THE SEA-URCHIN.

There are probably not many of my readers who cannot tell a starfish or
a sea-urchin at sight, that is to say, a grown-up starfish or urchin;
but to distinguish between them, or even to recognise them at all, in
the days of their infancy is a very different matter. Indeed, only those
who devote their lives to the study of these creatures are able to do
this, and the facts which their labours have brought to light are
curious indeed, though so complex that it would be impossible to
describe them here in full detail.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Young Starfish.]

An outline, however, of what we may call the story of the starfish can
be told readily enough, and without in any way losing aught either of
its importance or its interest.

Briefly, among the starfish people--and including also the sea-urchins
and sea-cucumbers, the curious brittle-stars and feather-stars--parental
care is the exception, and not the rule. Having cast their eggs adrift
upon the sea, the mothers of the families leave the rest to nature. Let
us follow the history of one of these eggs. No sooner is it adrift than
it begins a very remarkable career. Starting at first as a tiny ball, it
divides next into two precisely similar balls, and since these divide
again and again in like manner, we have in a few hours a mass of little
balls, intimately connected with one another, and resembling a mulberry
in appearance, enclosing a hollow space. (Fig. 1.)

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Young Starfish, second stage.]

This stage reached, the end of the first chapter in the life of the
starfish is closed. He has grown so far, it should be noticed, without
eating; but for further progress food is necessary. Now, this food
cannot be taken in without a mouth and some sort of stomach. These are
formed by the simple device of tucking in one side of the ball, just as
one might push in one side of an indiarubber ball; the rim of the hollow
thus formed becomes the mouth, and the hollow into which it leads is the
stomach, while within the space lying between the outer wall and that
portion of the wall which is pushed in--which corresponds to the inside
of the indiarubber b