LOBSTERS. 75 



shell, together with an unique and valuable consecutive 

 series of cast shells from a lobster from Jin. to 4 l-16th in. 

 long which means from about 15 to 16 weeks old and had 

 already moulted 6 times (the living original of which is still 

 in the possession of Mr. H. J. Waddington, F.L.S., of 

 Bournemouth, Past President of the Bournemouth Natural 

 Science Society, &c., through whose great patience and skill 

 in keeping a lobster alive in captivity so long and his equally 

 great kindness in lending us this series prior to their taking up 

 their permanent home in the .British Museum to which they 

 are destined we are deeply indebted to-day) I thought a few 

 notes on that crustacean would not be amiss, before we turn our 

 attention finally to the circumstances concerning my exhibits. 

 The lobster, as we know it, in other words the lobster 

 inhabiting British (and consequently our Dorset) waters, is 

 practically peculiar to our British seas, or at any rate, the 

 waters almost immediately adjacent thereto. The Norwegian 

 lobster belongs to the same family (Homaridse), but to the 

 sub-family Nephrops, and is scientifically named " Nephrops 

 Novegicus." It is unlike our English lobster, in its 

 colour, size, shape, and eyes, from which organs its name is 

 derived. Their eyes are nephroid in other words kidney 

 shaped. These Crustacea are caught also sometimes on the 

 British coast, in the Mediterranean, and inhabit also the 

 Moroccan seas, and I exhibit two specimens from the latter 

 coast (brought home by one of the long-distance Belgian 

 trawlers frequenting that coast about 4 years ago) from which 

 it will be seen the body of the Norwegian lobster is long and 

 cylindrical, is of pale flesh colour, with darker markings, 

 and the claws are long, slender, and spiny. The kidney- 

 shaped eyes, too, will be observed. On the opposite side of 

 the Atlantic we have one other member of the same family 

 as the British lobster (Homarus Americanus) which teems 

 in the Northern Atlantic seas of the N. American and Canadian 

 Coasts. This lobster is described in " The National Encyclo- 

 paedia " as " being larger than the English lobster, with 

 bigger claws, but, in other respects, almost identical with the 



