284: ARTICULATA. CRUSTACEA. 



FAM. II. MACROURA,* LOBSTERS, $C. 



The abdomen is in these fully as long as the 

 body, extended but curved. The extremity is fur- 

 nished with some appendages, which generally form 

 a flat fin. The under part usually has five pairs 

 of false feet ; the antennae are generally long and 

 projecting; the shell is longer and narrower than 

 in the Crabs, and usually ends in a sharp pro- 

 jection from the middle of the forehead. They are 

 all aquatic, and almost all marine. 



Pagurus^ the Hermit. 



The charge of usurping a habitation which was 

 not originally his own, brought against the Argo- 

 naut, though "not proven" in that case, is in the 

 genus before us incontrovertibly true. The abdo- 

 men, which resembles a sac, being soft and unpro- 

 tected by a shell, needs an external covering, and 

 God has given it a singular instinct by which 

 this want is supplied. In some univalve shell, of 

 almost any species of suitable size, the inhabitant 

 of which is dead, the Hermit inserts its soft abdo- 

 men, holding fast the spire by means of some finger- 

 like processes with which the tail is furnished. One 

 claw is much larger than the other ; the next two 

 pairs of feet are of great size, but the two hind- 

 most pairs are exceedingly small and weak, serving 



makros, long, and ovga, owra, a tail. 

 , pagouros, the Greek name of a genus of Crabs. 



