32 THE LIFE OF CRUSTACEA 



Lobster turn red when it is boiled ?" is one to which 

 it is not easy to give a simple answer. A chemical 

 change takes place under the influence of heat in the 

 pigment of the shell, which changes it from blue to 

 red ; how slight the change is, is perhaps shown by 

 the fact that occasionally living Lobsters are found of 



a red colour almost as brilliant 

 as that which is assumed on 

 boiling. 



The Common Lobster is found 

 on the coasts of Western 

 Europe, from Norway to the 

 Mediterranean, living in shallow 

 water, generally a little way 

 below low-tide mark, wherever 

 a rough, rocky bottom affords 



suitable lurking-places. On the Atlantic coast of 

 North America, Lobsters are also found abundantly 

 in similar situations. These American Lobsters, if 

 examined carefully, will be found to differ from the 

 European kind in certain small details of structure, 

 of which the most conspicuous is the presence, on the 

 under-side of the rostrum, of two spines or teeth. In 

 the European Lobsters the under-side of the rostrum 

 is smooth (Fig. 9). In the nomenclature of technical 

 zoology, these two kinds or species of Lobster are said 

 to constitute (along with a third species found at the 

 Cape of Good Hope) the genus Homams, the 

 European species being known as Homarus gam- 



FIG. 9 SIDE-VIEW OF 

 ROSTRUM OF (A) 

 COMMON LOBSTER 

 (Homarus gammarns) 

 AND (B) AMERICAN 

 LOBSTER (Homarus 

 amcricanus] 



