A Lobster's Legs

A lobstet's lpgs, all tokl, are ton in nnrnber, but only eight of tliose are largely used for walking. The front pair, or big claws, have boeu specialized, as in the crab, and rnost others of th higher crustaceans,. hito prebensile orgaus for catohing aud cmshing the prey. ïheir use is obvious. Lobsters feed largely off mollusksof vsrions sorts and other hard shelled marine animáis. Iu order to be able to break or crush the shells of these and so to get at the softer flesh within thcy have aoquired such large aud very muscular nippers or pinchers. That is not all, however. Not only bave the two front legs been differentiated and specialized from the eight others in this manuer, but also, by a rare exception to the symmetry of the body, the right claw has been specialized from the left, each being intendod to perform a distiuct funotion. Oue is a ecissors, the other is a mili ; one ia a cutter, the other is a oracker. As a rule, the right claw is the elen(Jerer aud longer. It has toothlike projections or serrated edges on its nipping faces, aud it is rathor adapted for bifcing and severing than for crushing or grinding. The left claw, on the other hand, is usually thieker, heavier and rounder. Its muscles are more powerf ul, aud in place of sharp teeth it has bluut tubercles or hanmiers of different sizes. It acts, in fact, more like a nut oracker than like teeth or a saw. It is a sraashing organ. Nevertheless you will flnd it intoresting to observe, by noting the lobsters served to you at table, that this differentiation has hardly as yet become quite constant, for sometimes it is the right claw that displays the hammerlike nut cracker type and the left that acts as nipper and biter, while sometimes no differcnce occurs at all, both claws alike being sharp toothed or blunt liammered