emoir on it.

This learned naturalist states that the fact of the connexion between
the fish and the star-fish is well known to most of the fishermen in
Amboyna, and that he was able to obtain a sufficiency of specimens for
examination; but as the star-fishes (and with them the fishes) speedily
died in confinement, he was unable to make continuous observations upon
them in a living state. Of the results of his observations he gives the
following summary:--

"The fish stands to the star-fish in a definite relation which cannot be
the object of observation. Why the little fish should always seek the
stomachal cavity of one and the same species of star-fish, and not that
of various species, is a mystery. It is well known that Crustaceans of
the genus _Pagurus_ inhabit the empty shells of Mollusca; but we find
on the shore the same species of _Pagurus_ in the shells of the most
various genera and species.

"I have never met with _Oxybeles gracilis_, on the contrary, in any
other species of star-fish than _Culcita discoidea_. The fish was
described by Bleeker under the above name in 'Natuurkundig Tijdschrift,'
vii., p. 162. The author proceeds to state that neither he nor any one
else in Amboyna has ever captured the fish under other circumstances, or
while swimming freely in the sea; but upon this Dr Bleeker remarks that
many of his specimens of _Fierasfer Brandesii_, and all those of
_Fierasfer (Oxybeles) gracilis_ and _F. lumbricoides_, were obtained by
him along with other fishes, and were probably taken while swimming
freely in the sea.

"Upon the habits of _Oxybeles gracilis_ the author goes on to say that
it is certain that this animal passes the greater part of its existence
in the stomach of the star-fish, rarely shewing itself outside of this,
and then probably at night. That it does come out occasionally, appears
from the fact that in two cases the author observed the fish with a
portion of its body outside the cavity of the star-fish, and in the act
of creeping in.

"The same observations shewed that the fish, in returning to its
concealment, passes along the furrow of the lower surface of one of the
arms leading to the mouth of the star-fish, which is wide enough, when
the tentacles are retracted, to leave room for the passage of the
slender body of the _Oxybeles_. This fact likewise proves that the
_Oxybeles_ does not get into the stomach of the _Culcita_ by accident.

"If a living _Culcita_ be cut in tw