464 THE SLOW SHRIMP. 



The Spiny Lobster is also called the SEA CRAY-FISH, or the RED CRAB. Its claws are 

 very small, and by no means formidable. It is mostly found on the western and southern 

 coasts, and is caught in crab-pots, like the common lobster. Its flesh is good and well- 

 flavored, though rather tougher and coarser than that of the lobster ; moreover, the want of 

 the claws is a drawback to its excellence, so that it is not esteemed nearly so much as the true 

 lobster. Sometimes it is found entangled in the nets, and even upon the fishermen's lines. 



The average length of this species is eighteen inches, and its weight about five pounds, 

 when adult. Its color is purple-brown, with some irregular white spots, and its legs are red- 

 dish-white, banded longitudinally with brown. One species of this genus, Palinurus orna- 

 tus, sometimes attains to an enormous size, measuring from the end of the antennae to the tail 

 rather more than four feet. 



The Spiny Lobster is abundant on the Florida Reef, and there serves as a tolerable sub- 

 stitute for the Lobster, which does not inhabit south of New York. It is called Craw-fish at 

 Key West. As an edible it lacks the pleasant flavor of the former, being more like the com- 

 mon edible crab. 



THE LOBSTER OF AMERICA inhabits from St. Lawrence River to New York State. For- 

 merly, the specimens obtained for the markets were of good average size of eighteen inches. 

 They are now reduced to smaller numbers, and one a foot in length of body is rare. Legis- 

 lation has become necessary for the protection of this most useful and highly-prized food 

 crustacean. 



THE two next examples belong to a family called the Thalassinidse, in which the abdomen 

 is long, its integuments rather soft, and the carapace small and compressed on the sides. 



The first one, the MUD-BURROWER, is not very often seen, as it lives in a burrow some 

 two feet under the surface of the mud. It forces itself beneath the mud by means of the third 

 pair of legs, and there passes the greater portion of its time. The shell of this species is very 

 thin, and but for the enormous claw with which it is furnished it would seem quite a helpless 

 creature. 



One species of this genus, the GREAT BURROWING CRAB (Callianassa major), inhabiting 

 Florida and other parts of America, forms a very remarkable burrow. Mr. T. Say, who found 

 this creature by digging in the sand, gives the following account of its habits: "It had 

 formed a tubular domicile, which penetrated the sand in a perpendicular direction to a consid- 

 erable depth ; the sides were of a more compact consistence than the surrounding sand, pro- 

 jecting above the surface about half an inch or more, resembling a small chimney, and rather 

 suddenly contracted at top into a small orifice. The deserted tubes of the Callianassa are in 

 many places very numerous, particularly where the sand is indurated by iron into the incip- 

 ient state of sandstone ; they are always filled up, but may be readily distinguished by the 

 indurated walls and summit often projecting a little above the general surface." 



The Mud-burrower is rather a pretty little creature, being of a soft pink hue, sometimes 

 changing to yellow on the sides. Very soon after death these colors fade, and change into 

 dull gray. The haddock seencs to feed largely on this species, as fragments are mostly found 

 in the stomach of the fish. 



The second species is the SLOW SHRIMP, a rather curious looking creature, much 

 resembling the common shrimp, except that it possesses a pair of large and stout claws. Its 

 popular name is derived from the sluggishness of its movements, as it has scarcely any idea of 

 running or swimming away if alarmed, but only attempts to escape by burrowing in the mud. 

 If, therefore, it should be intercepted upon some harder ground, where it is not able to 

 burrow, it exhausts all its strength in unavailing efforts, and is easily taken prisoner. The 

 best way of obtaining this creature is to dig it out of the sand. It is but a small species, 

 measuring about three inches in length. Several other burrowers are inhabitants of the 

 European shores. One of them is the MUD-BORER (Gebia stellata), a small species, measuring 

 about two inches in length. This creature often takes possession of the burrows which have 

 been made and forsaken by the razor-shell, but it is doubtlessly able to bore holes for itself. 

 It is rather a pretty little crustacean, being of a pale yellowish-white, covered with very little 



