Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-12

task of squeezing the balance of his body
out of its casing. and laid quite still from?
rate in the afternoon until late the next
morning l was puZz,ed as to the manner
in which he would escape from the shells
which covered the tail. as they Joined to-
gether only at the sides and telescoped into
each other, and wondered whether sepa-
rate operation would be necessary for each
one l therefore watched him closely, not
wanting to miss any part of the operation.
He concluded his long rest in the morn
ing by repetition of the shudders which
developed into commissions, unlike those
previously experienced. in that instead of
starting from the head they were reversed,
so that the body seemed to shrink from the
tail. This was varied occasionally by a
sort of a jump. which was effected by the
lobster doubling his tail under him and
sprirging up in the water.
Presently the shell nearest the head split
on the left side near the body, and opened
about eighth of an inch. Another con-
vulsion, followed by jump. and the sec
ond shell split. This part of the operation,
which reminded me somewhat of dance
that had its origin in this country at the
worlds fair. was repeated until all the
shells were loosened on the left side. The
lobster once more began the squeezing pro-
cess and after half hours hard work
finally got clear of the shell entirely, lying
down by its side for a rest, which lasted
for three days
The shell looked much the smaller of
the two, and save that it was mOt1oneSS
d
crustacean in full dress. The naked lobster
did not look at all like his old self. His
colors were so bright as TO suggest that
he had been parboiled. and ne had the ten
der appearance of human flesh from which
the skin had just been removed.
Left Old Suit Rehind.
81 took out the shell, and upon examina-
ton could hardly believe that the former
tenant had squeezed out Of it, so small was
4
only / ad he left the major part of his eyes.
but also the lining of his stomach, includ-
ing his internal teeth and some of the bones
Of his thoraX: vet he seemed to be little
worse for the thorough turnout. l touched
him and found that, although quite soft,
he was covered with an incip;ent shell of
the approximate solidity of oiled tissue.
That he did not Ike TO be touched was
made apparent by his efforts to get away
from my hands
During the three following days the
shrimps worried him to a considerable ex-
tent but he grew with marvellous rapidity
until he was fnlly half as big again as ne
had been. and when I once more touched
him the shell on his big claws was suffi-
GENTLY hard to give me a sDiteful nip.
When / placed the lobster in the aquarium
he was without his big left claw. which
had been accidentally wrenched off at the
time of his capture. The stump healed very
quickly; a hard. calcareous seal incrust-
ing the end of the joint.
Old Claws Useless.
when he worked himself out of his old
shell he appeared with a rudimentary left
claw, which had evidently formed behind
the shield. This claw grew even more
rapidly than the rest of the body, and by
the time the new shell was hard the new
claw, though still disproportionate was OF
very serviceable dimensions. This is char
acteristic of both Holsters and crabs They
sometimes appear to dismember themselves
voluntarily. They apparently feel that they
can make better job of an entire limb than
or single joint of one If in taking a crab