THE DECAPOD CRUSTACEA. 173 



The true lobster (Homarus vulgaris) is especially character- 

 ised by its relatively short rostrum, which only slightly 

 exceeds the peduncle of the antennae in length, and by the 

 fact that this rostrum bears three teeth on each side, and 

 none beneath. The very large chelipeds have the wrist 

 (carpopodite) furnished with four or five large conical teeth 

 on the upper border. Lobsters, as is well known, are usually 

 brownish blue in colour, marbled with white ; but there is 

 considerable variation in colour, full- red varieties not being 

 unknown. They do not inhabit very deep water, and are 

 usually caught off rocky coasts. According to the fishermen 

 they are very sedentary animals, rarely venturing far from 

 their particular haunts. This observation depends upon the 

 fact that they have a peculiar tendency to exhibit local 

 variations in colour, which is said to enable experts to name 

 the locality from which particular specimens have come. 

 Thick-shelled forms like the lobster cannot, of course, change 

 colour according to their surroundings, as delicate forms like 

 Hippolyte can ; so that if, as is generally supposed, the 

 colour of the lobster has a direct relation to that of its 

 environment, the adaptation must have taken place when 

 the lobster was very young, or must be the result of a 

 process of selection in each locality. 



Lobsters are very widely distributed around the coasts of 

 Europe, and it is said that five or six millions are annually 

 taken in Northern Europe alone. Whatever be the exact 

 figures, there is no doubt that in most localities the in- 

 cessant persecution has greatly diminished their numbers, 

 and that in spite of the fact that the female lays 12,000 

 eggs at a time, and carries them about with her till they 

 hatch. Recently efforts have been made to protect what 

 is grotesquely called the "hen-lobster in berry" that is to 

 say, the female with eggs, during at least a part of the year. 



The Norway lobster, with its delicate colouring and thin, 

 elaborately sculptured shell, is a much more graceful animal 

 than the true lobster, and from its shape one would expect 

 it to be capable of much more rapid locomotion. It never 

 occurs near the shore, but lives in deep water, whence it is 

 obtained by trawlers. Though typically a Norwegian species, 

 it extends also in diminished numbers to the Mediterranean, 

 and is the object of an extensive fishery on the east coast 



