[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
HAS a cylindric body, the antennæ long, and a broad tail. This fish, for it is one of the crustaceous kind, begins the class of water insects. His large claws enable him to seize on his prey and to fix himself at the small prominencies of rocks in the sea, to resist the motion of the waves, and to fight his enemies. His tail is a fulcrum against which the Lobster makes a point when he wants to spring off. His procession is preposterous, as well as all of the crab kind. Besides his claws, he has four small legs on each side to assist him in his awkward movements. Under the tail the hen Lobster preserves her eggs till they are hatched. The flesh of the Lobster is sound and wholesome, and the tail and claws yield a most agreeable flavour. Although it has long been supposed that the Lobster was either male or female, some modern naturalists pretend that each individual possesses both sexes; a peculiarity belonging to this kind of animal, as well as to all the crustaceous fish, is that (bearing similarity in that respect to the subjects of the vegetable kingdom), is they lose a limb it is soon replaced by another of the same form. It is the water locust.