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until this has taken place. Freshly skinned and uninjured in- 

 dividuals look extremely gay in their new bright colours. 



Of those habits of the lobster that can be watched in the 

 Aquarium , we specially notice its custom of digging ditches 

 and holes in the sand, partly for hiding-places, partly for burying 

 food, and also its manner towards its companions, with whom 

 it often engages in deadly combat, trying the gigantic strength 

 of its claws with only too much success. The invalids with ab- 

 breviated feelers and broken claws sometimes seen in other 

 tanks, are such unhappy creatures wounded in battle or during 

 the moult. 



The native place of the lobster is mostly on the shores of 

 North-European seas, where it is largely taken. Lobsters are 

 caught in baskets trimmed with bait ; into these they creep at 

 night. Lobsters are rare in the Mediterranean, and they com- 

 mand a higher price in the southern markets. 



In the adjoining tank visitors will find a near relation of 

 the lobster : the crawfish (Palinurus vulgaris) , sometimes 

 called the prickly lobster and often mistaken for the true lob- 

 ster. But a mere glance shows the difference between them. 

 Its want of claws, its spiny shell, and immense feelers strike even 

 an unpractised eye , and closer comparison reveals numerous 

 other differences, which we leave our reader to find out for him- 

 self. The habits of the two animals are, however, very similar, 

 but the crawfish is more companionable, not so warlike and mo- 

 re lively ; it likes to climb the rocky sides of the tank, which 

 it does with great agility, and feeds on shell fish, which it cle- 

 verly opens with the strong claws of its fore'legs In the Me- 

 diterranean it is far more frequent than the lobster, and is found 

 on all the rocky shores of the Gulf of Naples. It endures con- 

 finement very well. 



One of its relations is the great Flat-Lobster (Scyllarus la- 

 tus), a very lazy and clumsy fellow, who passes the greatest 

 part of its life in sitting still in a crevice of the rocks. Its 

 thick body is generally covered with mud and biown Algae 

 (Diatoms) so that it is often mistaken for a stone. It uses its 

 front feelers, which are shaped like two broad shovels, as weapons 

 of defence. The hinder and normally shaped feelers are violet- 

 coloured , and with these the animal constantly feels about. 

 When feeding, it hides its food with its shovels. 



There will often be found in the tank containing crabs, the 

 little Flat-Lobster (Seyllarns arctus), which is of a more li- 

 vely and decided colour, climbing in troops on the sides of the 

 tank. The Lioncrabs Galatea, Munida are also near relations. 



