BAS'KET-FISH'. A group of echinoderms of the same class (Ophiuroida) as brittle-stars, hut of the genus Astrophyton, characterized by (Hello tomously branched arms. in some species so numerously subdivided that when they are curled up the creature seems inclosed in a basket. The five-sided disk varies in size with age and species, hut may be 3 inches broad, while the •1111s may be 10 to 15 inches in length. The upper side of the disk has ten radial ribs, bearing short, blunt spines. The animal is wholly covered with an epidermis, granulated above, but smooth be neath, except that it seems to have a double line of stitches under each arm. The general color is light buff: but the intcrbraehial spaces in the living animal vary from dark purple to bright pink. The mouth is on the under side and cen tral, and is set with spiniform bristles hiding numerous tho•n-like teeth. From around the star shaped mouth branch 5 stout arms, each of which is divided at the edge of the disk. Each of these 5 main branches is divided into 2, making 10; each of the 10 is divided, making 20—and so indellnitely down to the least visible filament. An English naturalist counted 81.920
of these 'small sprouts, twigs, or threads' in one species. On capture or disturbance the crea ture instantly folds its arms closely about its body, shrinking from the touch like a sensi tive plant and assuming the basket-shape from which it gets its familiar name. The attempt to untwist these coils generally ends in breaking the delicate but tenacious threads. The fish is probably a vegetable feeder, and its pecu liar arms serve possibly for its protection from its enemies. The microscope shows each arm and spine to terminate in a minute but sharp hook. The animal, in moving, lifts itself on the extreme end of its long arms, standing as it were, on tip toe, so that "the ramifications form a kind of trellis-wo•k all around it reaching to the ground, while the disk forms the roof." A number of species of basket-fish are known; perhaps a dozen are valid. They are found in moderately deep water in most parts of the ocean. especially in the tropics. though the best-known species are of the North Atlantic.