1928 CRABS magazine article, Crabs & Crablike sea creatures, color artwork

Description

Selling is a 1928 magazine article about:
CRABS
Title: CRABS AND CRABLIKE CURIOSITIES OF THE SEA
Author & Illustrator: William Crowder
Quoting the first page “Of the numerous groups of animals inhabiting the sea, none offers a greater variety of interest than does that division of creatures called the Crustacea. Aside from the diversity of habits which the different species show, individuals of the same kind often have singularities of traits which make their study peculiarly attractive to the naturalist. Particularly is this the case in that group which constitutes the Crabs.
Although all living animals of the earth now exhibit a wide divergence, it is not inconceivable that by origin they belong to a single family. Thus they are subject to classification. Occupying a position about midway between the one-celled protozoans and the animals having a backbone are those lower creatures without a backbone, but possessed of jointed legs, and known as the Arthropoda. The crustaceans, according to the present system, stand at the head of all arthropods; and the Crabs are the highest of crustaceans.
Some forms of crustacean life can be met with almost everywhere. Inland they are represented by the crayfishes of ponds and streams and by the familiar pill bugs of cellar and garden and moist situations generally.
Yet there is one crab which, despite its restricted habitat, has found universal fame. This is the edible Blue Crab common to the waters of certain localities along the Atlantic coast; and this is the crustacean which comes to our tables under the less distinctive, but better-known, title of "soft-shelled crab." Science identifies it as
Callinectes sapidus
.
The Blue Crab, however, is entitled to a reputation of sorts, even were it without those palate-appealing attributes upon which rests its present fame. It is unusually powerful and one of the most active of swimming crabs. By the same token it is fearless. Pugnacious, it will at times attack an individual of another species which is as large or even larger.
As in all swimming crabs, the last joints of the hind legs of the Blue Crab are modified into oarlike expansions, enabling the animal to propel itself with comparative rapidity.
Still, notwithstanding its ability to overtake many creatures which would serve as its food, it prefers to make its captures by a totally different method. It buries itself in the bottom, where it lies entirely concealed, with the exception of its stalked eyes. Here it awaits such passers-by as are to its liking. When one such approaches within striking distance, the crab pounces upon it with the swiftness of a cat.
It must be added, nevertheless, that almost anything is grist which comes to the Blue Crab's gastric mill. It will eat of carrion as readily as it will of the appendages of a living Hermit Crab, which it is particularly prone to tear apart.
An economic commercial value of crabs in this country is found in fewer than a half dozen species; but in the economy of Nature all are valuable. Of the several hundred odd species which inhabit our coasts, nearly all are scavengers and perform an important work in keeping our shore waters clean.
Commercially the Blue Crab ranks first in importance, but its place is partly, though surreptitiously, supplanted by the Rock Crab
(Cancer irroratus)
.
This crab, like the flounder and the skate, which are often served as scallops, not infrequently finds its way to hotel and restaurant tables disguised as the…"
7” x 10”, 16 pages, 8 B&W & 8 color paintings
These are pages from an actual 1928 magazine.
28G2
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