StNicholas [serial] . ngton, St. Nicholas: I am sending you to-day a curiositywhich was caught at the harbor shore, Stonington. The peculiarity is, that there are two extra fingers onthe pincers or big claw, thus giving it four fingers in-stead of two, the usual number. This may interest yourmany readers, as a crab with so many divisions in its bigclaw is rarely seen. Yours truly,Elizabeth Palmer Loper (age 17). The deformity described and illustrated is veryinteresting. A precisely similar malformationhas been found in lobsters, crayfishes and otherrelated Crustacea. This var
StNicholas [serial] . ngton, St. Nicholas: I am sending you to-day a curiositywhich was caught at the harbor shore, Stonington. The peculiarity is, that there are two extra fingers onthe pincers or big claw, thus giving it four fingers in-stead of two, the usual number. This may interest yourmany readers, as a crab with so many divisions in its bigclaw is rarely seen. Yours truly,Elizabeth Palmer Loper (age 17). The deformity described and illustrated is veryinteresting. A precisely similar malformationhas been found in lobsters, crayfishes and otherrelated Crustacea. This variation is not particularly rare, thoughnot the commonest variation in the big points to notice about it are, that it is not acase of duplex claws (doubling of the claw), butof duplex fingers, or to be painfully precise, oftwo extra (supernumerary) fingers arising froma normal finger. By the way, there is a good deal of confusionin the use of the word pincers, claws, big claws or pincers or forceps of. THE PECULIAR CRAB two upper points are extra fingers. The next lower (shortand curved downward) is the regular right finger. The lower projec-tion is the regular right thumb. The causes of such deformities are somewhatobscure, but seem to be in some way concernedwith injuries, and the process of new growth bywhich these injuries are repaired.—Francis , Adelbert College, Cleveland. SNAKES IN WINTER. Nelson, B. St. Nicholas : Can you tell me what snakes do inwinter? Do they freeze, and then thaw out in spring orwarm days ? Winnifred Campbell. Snakes hibernate during cold weather: that is,they burrow well into the ground, beneath theline of frost, and as the cold weather comes onthey become stupefied. They do not freeze.—Raymond L. Ditmars. A considerable number of black snakes andcopperheads, which had taken refuge in a deepcrevice in the debris of an aboriginal soapstonequarry, were uncovered several years ago duringthe investigation o
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