Mivart, tridactyle forcepses, immovably fixed at the base, but capable of a snapping action, certainly exist on some star- fishes; and this is intelligible if they serve, at least in part, as a means of defence.

Mr.

Agassiz, to whose great kindness I am indebted for much information on the subject, informs me that there are other star- fishes, in which one of the three arms of the forceps is reduced to a support for the other two; and again, other genera in which the third arm is completely lost.

In Echinoneus, the shell is described by M.