* PALINURUS OR "THE SPINY LOBSTER" OF BOMBAY.t 



By 



Arthur Powell. 

 ( With Illustrations.) 



This animal is to be found in abundance all the year round on the 

 coasts of Bombay. 



Prices vary with the supply and demand as well as with size, but 

 good specimens can be obtained during suitable states of the tide at 

 prices varying from four annas to less than a pice. 



Though locally called Lobsters, they do not belong to the same 

 genera or even to the same family as the English Homarus or 

 Norwegian Nephrops, and the inexperienced student attempting to 

 study the anatomy of the Cray-fish or Lobster will soon become 

 woefully muddled when he attempts to reconcile the accounts of the 

 Lobster in English text books with his personal observation of 

 Palinurus. 



It is with the hope of assisting the Indian student to a practical 

 knowledge of the anatomy of this common animal that the following 

 pages are written. 



The writer earnestly entreats the student never to open these pages 

 without having in front of him one or more living or dead specimens 

 of the animal. Otherwise by mere reading he will gain little genuine 

 knowledge and that only with an iufinity of pains, whereas with 

 the animal before him he can verify with his own eyes and hands 



* I have called this animal Palinurus though by many the oriental spec'es are considered 

 worthy of generic rank ;iiid called J'anuliru.?. There has been some discussion as to who 

 had the honor of inventing the latter epithet, t ahnurus was the worthy pilot of .^ne^ 

 ship. He fell overboard and was drowned near a cape, to which .md the ' ^piuy Lobster" 

 of 1 ngland, tho " Langonste" of France, he has since stood godfather. •• I'anuliros," 

 Greek for' wholly lewd." " without a trace of t-hame, ' is a foul lilel I would hesitate, 

 without the most damning evidence, to apply to any gentleman, mnch less to the hero of my 

 sketch. 



My own impression is thit the name was accidentally invented by a Babu from "Nucklow" 

 who invariably transposes his ' is *' and " ns " The first specimens received in Europe were 

 pac l ed and labelled by a Museum Balm in Calcutta. 



Perchance he had supped not wisely the previous right on Lobster salad and felt the 

 epithet, Panulivus," biluul luchcha," all too feeble a summary of his more vigorous Bengal, 

 vituperation. 



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