il.oi'ODA. 263 



females by the i< nu of the forceps, which terminate the two or four 

 anterior feet : they are inflated ami deprived of the moveable tor. 

 Tin 1 t\vo last feet of this shield are united in tin- form of a large, 

 membranous, and almost semi-circular leaflet, having the sexual 

 organs on its posterior face, and presenting, in the middle of an 

 emugination of the posterior margin, two small, triangular, elongated, 

 and pointed divisions, which appear to represent the internal toes of 

 the forceps ; the other articulations are indicated by sutures. The 

 second piece of the shell, articulated with the first in the middle of 

 its posterior emargination, and filling the interval it forms, is nearly 

 triangular, and is angularly truncated and emarginated at its posterior 

 extremity. Its lateral edges are alternately emarginated anddentated, 

 and in the middle of each of the emarginations, counting from the 

 second, is an elongated and moveable spine, six on -ach side. Inclosed 

 in the inferior cavity, and disposed in pairs on two longitudinal 

 an- ten fin-like feet, almost similar in form to the two last, 

 hut simply united at base, laid one on the other, and bearing, on 

 their posterior face, the branchiae, which appear to be composed of 

 numerous and crowded fibres arranged on the same plane one against 

 the other. The anus is situated at the inferior root of the stylet 

 terminating the body. According to an observation communicated 

 to us by M. Straus, we only find in the interior of the first shield, 

 l>->ides the brain, a single sul>-o>sophagal ganglion*. The two 

 nervous cords are then prolonged into the interior of the second 

 shield, forming there, and at the origin of the branchial feet, some 

 small ganglia, which send branches to those organs, According to 

 Cuvier, the heart, as in the Stomapoda, is a large vessel furnished 

 internally with fleshy columns, extending along the back, and giving 

 out branches on both sides. A wrinkled oesophagus, ascending in 

 front, leads to a very muscular gizzard, lined with a cartilaginous 

 kind of velvet, .studded with tubercles, and followed by a wide and 

 straight intestine. The liver pours its bile into the intestine by two 

 . >n each side. A great portion of the shell is filled by the ova- 

 ries in the female, and by the testes in the male. 



These animals are sometimes found two feet in length ; they inha- 

 bit the seas of hot climates, and most generally frequent their shores. 

 They appear to me to be proper to the East Indies and the coast of 

 America. The species found in France L. Cyclops is commonly 

 railed the Casserole (a), from its having some resemblance to the form 

 of that utensil, and (because, when the feet are removed, its shell is 

 used to hold water. Major "Le Conte, one of the most intelligent of 

 naturalists in the United States, and who has so largely contributed 

 to advance the science of entomology by his discoveries and re- 

 es, states that it is given to the hogs. Savages employ the stylet 

 of the tail to point their arrows, which, thus armed, are much 



* The two anterior feet may represent the mandibles of the Decapoda, the four 

 following ones their jaws, and the last six their foot-jaws ; those of the second shield 

 would correspond to the thoracic feet. 



{/ (a) The King-crab, of American fishermen, or the Ho-sf-f-hot. Very common on 

 the roast of New Jersey. Eno. > > 



