They seem
to know the use of their armour well enough, for if disturbed you will
see them either scurry off as fast as their many little feet can carry
them--and they are able to run forward or backward at pleasure--or else
roll themselves up into tight balls, so that feet and head and feelers are
all safe, under the ringed shield which God has given them as a defence and
protection.
Many such creatures, rolled up just as the wood-louse curls itself, in
tight balls, have been found in a fossil state; and there is a little
petrified crustacean with wonderful eyes, which has been found in the slate
quarries of South Wales. It is called the Trilobite, because it is composed
of three lobes or divisions, and is an animal of the same kind as the
lobster. Be sure you look for it, if you are fossil-hunting in the Museum,
for it is a most interesting specimen, and has been found in rocks deep
down in the earth's crust.
Now, next to this Crab and Lobster family, come that of the Spiders, and
then that of the Insects.
Perhaps you will say, "But what are spiders, if they are not insects?"
I know I used to think they were, until I found that no creature can be
reckoned one of that large family unless it has _six legs_--not even one
more or one less. Now, a spider has eight legs, and it has no wings, while
all true insects have either wings, or what seems to be the beginning of
wings: also although some spiders have as many as eight eyes, they are all
"simple," while the eyes of insects are "compound"; that is, great numbers
are massed together at each side of the head, like the "facets," or little
faces, of a precious stone.
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