Oysters have been known to live entirely out of water for a considerable time. Prof. Verrill once noticed[223] a large cluster of oysters attached to an old boot, hanging outside a fish-shop in Washington. They had been taken out of the water on about 10th December, and on 25th February following some of the largest were still alive. It was noticed that all those which survived had the hinge upward and the ventral edge downward, this being the most favourable position possible for the retention of water within the gill-cavity, since the edge of the mantle would pack against the margins of the shell, and prevent the water from leaking away. Such a succulent creature as the oyster has naturally many enemies. One of the worst of these is the ravenous Starfish, or Five-finger. His omnivorous capacities are well described by a clever writer and shrewd observer of nature: “Here is one doubled up like a sea-urchin, brilliant of hue, and when spread out quite 16 inches in diameter; where, and oh where, can you obtain a prey? The hoe we carry is thrust out and the mass dragged shorewards, when the rascal disgorges two large dog-whelks he has been in the process of devouring. We feel a comfortable glow of satisfaction to think that this enemy of our oyster-beds is also the enemy of our other enemy, this carnivorous borer. Here, quite close alongside, is another, only inferior in size, and we drag him ashore likewise, to find that the fellow has actually had the courage and audacity to suck the contents out of a large horse-mussel (_Modiola_), the strong muscle alone remaining undevoured. We proceed along but a short way when we meet with still another in the curled-up condition in which they gorge themselves, and as we drag it shorewards the shell of a _Tapes pullastra_ drops from the relaxing grasp of the ogre. Slowly the extended stomach returns to its place, and the monster settles back to an uncomfortable after-dinner siesta on an exposed boulder; for the starfish wraps its turned-out stomach around the prey it has secured, in place of attempting to devour the limey covering in which most of its game is protected. Once the mouth of the shell is enclosed in the stomach of the starfish, the creature soon sickens, the hinge-spring relaxes its hold, and the shell opening permits the starfish to suck out the gelatinous contents, and cast free the calcareous skeleton.”[224]