}[other-of-Pearl Shell. 93 



than of the segmental body of a crustacean. The 

 tail is either absent or rudimentary and the two 

 claws are modified into simple feelers, protection 

 from enemies beincr Grained within the closed shell 

 of the host. 



West of Cossack the lobsters are more common, 

 and in the Montebello Islands they are almost 

 universal. In Sooloo, the Mother-of-Pearl shells 

 may contain one, two, or three lobsters, but almost 

 invariably the number is two, while the crab is 

 very rarely met with. Occasionally a shell is 

 found without any other inhabitant than its owner. 

 When the shell is closed the messmate retires 

 within a hollow place, in the lower part of the 

 oyster itself, near to the hinge of the shell, and this 

 cavity is called by Sooloo men, the "lobster's home." 



The idea tiiat these messmates may play some 

 important part in the formation of Pearls seems to 

 be a groundless speculation, and their general for- 

 mation as defenceless creatures, with great consuming 

 powers, would rather imply that they perform the 

 service of scavengers, clearing the shell of some of 

 the foreign substances which drift into it and annoy 

 the oyster. Even as it is, the Meleagrinae often 

 have to renovate their shells, and are in the habit 

 of burying such intruders as they cannot rid them- 

 selves of. Stones, mud, small shells, wood, and more 



