HALF AN HOUK WITH CRUSTACEA. 251 



genuine long-tailed crustaceans, and no more needs a 

 detailed description than the edible crab. We have 

 already quoted from Mr. Wood as to the thorough 

 exuviation which goes on during the moulting 

 season. The lobster usually sheds his coat in August 

 or September ; and the chief feature about it after- 

 wards is that it feeds most ravenously. Professor 

 Bell has shown that it has a real parental fondness 

 for its young, and that the latter have been seen 

 swimming about it, as chickens follow a hen. There 

 is ample reason to believe this statement, which was 

 given on good evidence ; for an amphipod called 

 Gammarus, which abounds along our coasts, and is 

 often caught by children in mistake for shrimps, and 

 boiled and eaten as such, is also remarkable for her 

 maternal solicitude for her young, the latter swim- 

 ming about her as those of the lobster are said to 

 do (see Fig. 136). The lobster swims about by 

 means of the swimmerets, but it also uses its tail as a 

 powerful instrument for propelling itself backwards. 

 It is said to be able to shoot backwards as much as 

 twenty feet by a single flap. Its eggs are usually 

 laid in the sand, and allowed to hatch themselves. 

 So perfectly does the lobster cast off his old coat, 

 that the latter might be taken for a perfect animal. 

 The " Spiny-lobster," or " Cray-fish " (Palinurus), is 

 about a foot in length, and is common in the German 

 Ocean and along western coasts. Our readers must 

 be familiar with its spiny appearance, and light 

 scarlet colour, as seen exposed on the fishmongers' 



