By
doing this he harms himself more than the Starfish! Each half grows into
a perfect Starfish with five rays complete. We can say that each part of
this animal has a separate life, for each part can grow when torn away.
If you were asked to open an oyster you would need tools, would you not?
Even with an oyster-knife it is not always an easy job. The oyster,
tight in his shelly fortress, seems safe from the attack of a weak
Starfish. Yet the Starfish opens and eats oysters as part of its
everyday life.
Finding a nice fat oyster, it sets to work. The Starfish folds its rays
over its victim, with its mouth against the edge where the shells meet.
The tug-of-war begins. The Starfish's tube-feet try to pull the shells
apart; the oyster, with all its strength, tries to keep them shut. It is
stronger than its enemy, and yet the steady pull of hundreds of suckers
is more than it can stand, and the shells, after a time, begin to gape a
little.
Now a strange thing happens. The mouth of the Starfish opens into a kind
of bag which slips between the oyster shells. The Starfish, as it were,
turns itself inside-out! It then eats the oyster and leaves the clean
shell.
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