318 ZOOLOGY. 



ages are of uniform shape like legs, not like mandibles or 

 maxillffi, and are adapted for walking ; the feet are pro- 

 vided with sharp teeth on the basal joint for retaining the 

 food. The mouth is situated between the second pair; the 

 first pair of legs are smaller than the others. All end in 

 two simple claws, except the sixth pair, which are armed 

 with several spatulate appendages serving to prop the crea- 

 ture as it burrows into the mud. The males differ from the 

 females in the hand and opposing thumb of the second pair 

 of feet. These cephalo-thoracic appendages are quite as dif- 

 ferent from those of other Crustacea as those of the mixes 

 and" spiders, wliich have a pair of mandibles and maxillfe, 

 the latter provided with a palpus. Appended to the ab- 

 domen are six pairs of broad swimming feet, of which the 

 first pair bear on the under side a set of about one hundred 

 respiratory leaves or plates, into which the blood is sent 

 from the heart, passing around the outer edge and return- 

 ing around the inner edge. This mode of respiration is like 

 that of the Isopods. 



The alimentary canal consists of an oesophagus, which 

 rises directly over the mouth, a stomach lined with rows of 

 large chitinous teeth, with a large conical, stopper-like valve 

 jjrojecting into the posterior end of the body ; the intestine 

 is straight, ending in the base of the abdominal spine. The 

 liver is very voluminous, ramifying throughout the cephalo- 

 thorax. Tlie nervous system is quite unlike that of other 

 Crustacea ; the brain is situated on the floor of the body in 

 the same plane as the rest of the system, and sends off two 

 pairs of nerves — a i3air to each pair of eyes.* The feet are all 

 supi^lied with nerves from a thick ring surrounding the 

 oesophagus. The nerves to the six pairs of abdominal legs 

 are sent oil from the ventral cord. 



* The nervous system of Limulusiaquite unlike that of the Scorpion, 

 where the brain is situated in the upper part of the head and supplies 

 the maxillas with nerves, and is situated directly over the infraceso- 

 phajreal ganglion ; and, besides, there is no oesophageal rinof as in 

 Limuhis, only the two commissures connecting tlie brain with the 

 infracesophageal ganglion as usual in the Neocarida and Arachnida in 

 i;eneral. 



