Fig. 144.—Common lobster.
In southern waters and on the Pacific coast, the place of the lobster is taken by the crayfish, or spiny lobster (Fig. 145). The resemblance to the lobster is almost exact with this exception: instead of large biting claws, the latter are but slightly larger than the ordinary claws, ending with a sharp point, while the antennæ or feelers are enlarged to an extraordinary degree, becoming highly serrated and defensive organs in every sense. The Florida crayfish is a rich reddish yellow, mottled color, while the California form is a greenish yellow. On the Florida Reef almost every coral branch or coral head hides a crayfish, the whips being seen waving to and fro. This is their day retreat, but at night they wander forth to feed in the luxuriant pastures of Algæ, or seaweeds, of various kinds found in the lagoons. By going out early in the morning, before sunrise, I have often surprised the crayfishes, the bottom being covered with them, massive fellows weighing eight or ten pounds. They are not so delicate in flavor as the lobster, but are very valuable as bait. The lobster and the Pacific crayfish are both canned, the industry being an important one.
Fig. 145.—Crayfish or spiny lobster.
The prawns (Fig. 146) and shrimps are well known and valuable members of this group, swarming in the same waters, and among the most graceful of the tribe. Many are absolutely transparent, the large black eyes alone being seen. The chameleon shrimp is noted for its rapid changes of color, green, brown, and reddish hues following each other over its crystallike body. In the deeper waters marvelous shrimps have been found, nearly all a dazzling red. Some of the East Indian shrimps are giants two feet in length. In England horses are employed to catch shrimps. A large dragnet is set in shallow water to which the horse is fastened, the fisherman, mounted, driving the animal over the shallow flats, hauling the nets inshore.
Fig. 146.—A, prawn; B, claw enlarged.
One of the most interesting of these ten-footed crustaceans is the blind crayfish of Mammoth Cave. It is found also in various subterranean streams of the country. The eyestalk of these little creatures is all that remains to tell the story of what was once an eye, and they live and thrive in perfect darkness. The ordinary crayfish of Western streams has a peculiar habit of burrowing, which at times has occasioned great damage in undermining dikes and dams. I once came upon a remarkable crayfish community in Indiana. There had been a flood the day previous, and every log in the neighborhood and the piers of the bridge were covered with crayfish which, in this locality at least, appeared to be endeavoring to escape from too much water. On all sides, some yards from the creek and high above it, the ground was raised into small heaps six or eight inches across, each, as I discovered, being the home of a crayfish, and as far as the eye could see on the prairie were these mounds and heaps, suggestive of the vast numbers of these little animals in this vicinity.