CRABS AND SHRIMPS. 



179 



the little animals are hatched, but until they have 

 acquired a sufficient maturity to swim about and get 

 their independent living. 



This receptacle, in which you may see five or six eggs, 

 is freely open to the surrounding water, which enters 

 the slit edge of the shell behind the tail. Perhaps you 

 wonder why the eggs are not washed out by the respira- 

 tory currents ; they are, in fact, maintained in their posi- 

 tion only by a slender tongue-like projection from the back 

 of the parent, which appears to have that special object. 

 When, however, the young are ready for freedom, the 



DAPHNIA. 



mother has but to depress her body a little more than 

 ordinary, when the door is opened, and the young easily 

 slip from the receptacle into the open water. 



These tiny odd-looking sprawling things that you see 

 moving about by quick jerks in the same drop of water, 

 are the young recently hatched. They are quite unlike 

 their parent, having as yet no bivalve shell, no abdomen, 

 and only three pairs of limbs. The body is a transparent 

 plate, resembling the bowl of a spoon in form, but ending 

 in two points which carry pencils of bristles. The large 



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