26 



GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



other words, because of his tail ; and the crab, con- 

 versely, is his more modified and better developed 

 cousin, because he has a higher nervous system and 

 a more elevated and compact type of body. Not alone 

 in crustacean life is this matter of tails a vital question. 

 From frogs up to man, the disappearance of the tail 

 bears an important part in the 

 history of the race. Heads are 

 all very well in the race for 

 superiority ; but when there is 

 a doubt at all in the matter of 

 aristocratic position among the 

 animal hosts, one may not go 

 very far astray in crediting with 

 a station of high degree, the being 

 which has discarded his tail and, 

 in a zoological sense, has come 

 to the short-jacket stage of ana- 

 tomical perfection. 



That lobster of ours has in his 

 body some twenty joints or seg- 

 ments, and there is not one joint 

 which may not form food for re- 

 flection. Every joint is really 

 a replica of every other joint, 

 ig- 8. Joints of Lobster's although, truly, you may require 



Body. . .... 



Ca is the united head and to dlVC into the intricacies of 

 chest : the numbers refer to the 



six joints of the tail; the refer- anatomy to trace OUt the llKCnCSS. 



ences ex and en refer to the r-^. ... - . . .. 



expanded appendages of the 1 llOSC SIX JOlIltS OI hlS tail are, 

 sixth joint forming the tail-fin ; . . . r . . _ 



and / is the telson, or middle perhaps, the Simplest OI hlS frame, 



piece of the tail-fin. ^ . , . 



Below you observe that each pos- 

 sesses a couple of appendages called the tl swim- 

 merets," and to these appendages Mamma Lobster, 

 as you may see, attaches her eggs, and constitutes 



