File:Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither (1875) (14597585438).jpg

Identifier: littlefolksinfea00mill (find matches)
Title: Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: (Miller, Harriet (Mann) Mrs.), 1831- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Dustin, Gilman & co. Cincinnati, Ohio, Queen city publishing co. (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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in the picture. If he is sufficiently alarmed, he canthrow off his arms, and they will grow on again. Some of them live loosely fixed in the soft mud, and can nodoubt get about a little. One of these creatures — the Rosy Feather Star — has acurious history. When he is a baby, he is seated on a long stem,which moves about in the water like a real flower in the breeze.But when he is full grown, he gets tired of his rocking cradle, andwants to see more of the world, so he breaks away from his home,and starts out for himself, swimming around in the water, or holdson to the rocks or weeds, with his feathery arms. He can hold onvery tightly too, as a gentleman who kept one in an aquariumtells us. iS 27i LITTLE FOLKS This gentleman says it is very hard to pull him away from hishold. His arms hook down and fasten to anything with as muchpower as though each feathery bit was a claw. Here is a picture of the beautiful creature. He is of a brightrose color, and about as large as the picture.
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The same gentleman tells us that when resting, the FeatherStar bends his petals in the form of a letter S. The family to which this creature belongs, was once very com-mon in the ocean. Whole mountains of marble are found to bemade entirely of these pretty Stone Lilies, dead and turned tos!:one, ages ago. I told you their stems were merely joints, with asmall hole through each. The arms are made of the same kind ofjoints, and sometimes as many as a hundred and fifty thousand IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 275 joints have been counted in a single head. These joints—turnedto stone—are often found cast up on the sea shore, and in oldtimes, when people were very superstitious they used to be col-lected and strung, to be used as Rosaries. They were called St.Cuthberts beads, and were said to be made by an imaginary Saintof that name, for that particular purpose. There are not so many varieties of the family to be found now,as used to live in past ages, but there are still several kinds occa-sion

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