392 



THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Young Lobsters 

 I, Just bom. 2, After first month. 



it was before throwing off its shell. The new shell then quickly 

 hardens, and at the end of three days the lobster is able to go out 

 into the world again. This change of shell takes place several 

 times in the Hfe of the animal. 



The principal difficulty in this process appears to lie in the 

 withdrawal of the great claws; for the great mass of muscle of 



which these chiefly consist has to be 

 drawn through a very narrow open- 

 ing. The sides of this opening, 

 moreover, are very sharply edged, so 

 that it would seem that the flesh 

 must be greatly torn and wounded 

 in the process. And so, indeed, it 

 often is. But the animal appears 

 to suffer no pain from its wounds, 

 which rapidly heal, and by the time 

 the new shell has hardened, it is quite 

 able to use its powerful claws again. 

 The lobster, like many other crustaceans, possesses the singular 

 power of reproducing a lost member. If one of its legs, for ex- 

 ample, should be accidentally torn off, the wound rapidly closes, 

 and before long a new limb is produced in place of the old. If 

 a lobster be alarmed, it will often throw off its great claws of its 

 own accord, and they are afterwards replaced by others. It is said 

 that if a cannon is fired above the spot where a lobster is lying, 

 the animal invariably casts off one or more of its members. 



The lobster swims by doubling up its fan-like tail with a rapid 

 movement under its body, by which action it is thrust backwards. 



In this way a lobster can dart for eighteen or twenty feet at a 

 single stroke, moving so rapidly that the eye can scarcely follow it 

 It is said, too, to be able to direct its course with perfect accuracy, 

 even though travelling backwards, and at full speed to enter a 

 crevice only just wide enough to allow its body to pass. Shrimps 

 and prawns, which in many respects are very much like small 

 lobsters, swim in exactly the same manner. 



