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ascertain its whereabouts previous to seizing it. When feeding, the lobster 

 moves its jaws like a weaver making a blanket ; he tears his food into large 

 pieces, leaving the pounding work to be done by the teeth in his stomach. The 

 lobster, like the crab, has a complicated stomach. It has an elaborate apparatus 

 of teeth which in shape are not unlike small elephants' teeth. When a lobster 

 is cut in two, these teeth are readily seen; they are called the "Lady in the 

 lobster's head." The aesophagus at its opening is armed with several pairs of 

 complicated jaws. Like the crab it breathes by means [of pyramidal gills * 

 which arc situated in a separate water-tight box something like the conforma- 

 tion we find in the crab. The intestine is one straight tube running down the 

 middle of the tail to an aperture which can be found near the tail flaps. 



Lobsters have a certain amount of intelligence. Mr. Reid, of Wick, a very Swimming of 

 observant naturalist, informs me that a lobster never sits in a hole without kbsters. 

 having a pool of water immediately in front of him into which he may escape 

 at the slightest indication of danger. Whereas the common crab cannot swim, 

 but crawls sideways, the lobster swims by beating the water with rapid and 

 continuous jerks with his tail. When lobsters are undisturbed they will move 

 very slowly along head foremost, carrying their heavy claws in front of them 

 well away from the ground. Mr. Climo of Polruan has seen them dart through 

 the pots as the pots were being hauled to the surface of the water ; they darted 

 through tail foremost. Lobsters can go either way, head foremost or tail fore- 

 most. I have seen a lobster, when alarmed, shoot itself backward, into a hole 

 for many feet without missing its mark. Lobsters seem to have profited by 

 experience : there is an impression among the fishermen of Wick that the 

 lobsters are becoming accustomed to the creels and will not go into them, 

 having somehow found out they are dangerous. 



Lobsters grow like crabs, by means of shedding their shells ; these shed Lobsters 

 shells are very perfect. I have in my museum the shed shell of a lobster from shen dl 

 Reculvers ponds, where I and some friends tried some experiments. The 

 lobster in this case could not have been more than an hour in casting its shell 

 as the attendant when going to dinner left one lobster, and when he returned 

 there were apparently two. Mr. Climo, of Polruan, informs me that in 1869, 

 when he had several lobsters in a store pot, he observed one of them to be 

 covered with silver lace. It was quite firm and lively early in the morning, but 

 about four hours later he found it had thrown off its outer coat. I have a fine 

 specimen in my museum presented by Mr. Hutchinson of Dunbar, of a lobster 

 with the shell he had cast in pot. In the process of this single moult the 

 lobster had increased one inch and an eighth. 



The crayfish at Brighton Aquarium sometimes shed their shells ; a very 

 perfect specimen of the shed shell of a crayfish has been deposited in my 

 museum by the Directors of the Brighton Aquarium. 



Lobsters are very intolerant of cold. In cold weather they seem numbed 

 and certainly retire into deep water. In very hot weather they are difficult to 

 carry. Mr. Scovell of Hamble informed us that a lobster in a welled smack 

 will keep for a fortnight or more, but an average passage is a week or ten days, 

 except in very hot calm weather. In hot calm weather they hang the lobsters 

 overboard in nets. In the far distant islands of Scotland evidence was 

 given to my colleague, Mr. Walpole, that lobsters could not be sent to 

 London in hot weather on account of the distance. In cold weather the lobster 

 will live eight days out of water; they are sent to London packed in sea-weed. 



It is advisable in this place to state that lobsters, when required to be kept, 

 live better if placed in the cellar among the coal. Coal seems to have some 

 effect in keeping them alive. Another way of keeping them alive, which is 

 rather a secret, is to place them in a barrel with straw ; the straw should be well 

 wetted with stale beer. 



Lobsters are great fighters ; they fight by pinching and smashing each other's cljlws of lobster: 

 claws. It will also be observed from diagram No. 1 that the tips of the two 

 anterior pair of the walking claws of the lobster are notched and therefore 

 prehensile, while the two hinder pair of legs end in a brush-like tip. I have 

 not yet arrived at the meaning of this difference in structure. In the female 

 the brush-tipped claws may possibly assist in depositing the eggs under the 



* In nearly .all the lobsters I have discovered some very curious parasites tightly adherent to 

 the lungs, somewhat resembling the parasites attached to the gills of salmon. I have not the 

 least idea of what use they can be. This parasite of the lobster's lung is scientifically known as 

 flicothoe astaci. 



