LIVING PINCHERS. 63 



partly cooked. Cooking, you will observe, turns the 

 color of the shell red. 



This creature seems to have legs in abundance. It 

 is a great improvement upon the snail that has no legs. 

 Attached to the thorax are eight pairs of limbs, the 

 first three pairs being used as jaws, and called foot-jaws; 

 the next pair are the great claws ; and the four pairs 

 behind the claws are the walking legs. Six pairs of 



American Lobster. 



smaller limbs are fastened to six of the joints of the 

 abdomen, and are used as paddles for swimming. They 

 are called swimmerets. 



The last joint of the abdomen, or the tail-fin, works 

 back and forth, and helps the animal to swim back- 

 wards, when it so desires. The two great claws are not 

 precisely alike. The more clumsy one has coarse teeth, 

 and is used to anchor the animal or hold it firmly to 

 some object, while the other has fine teeth and is used 



