30 MB. S. J. A. SALTER ON THE MOULTING OE THE 



tapping; his evidently acute sense of smell, aiding him in his 

 search ; his secure footsteps on the slender branches, to which he 

 firmly clmig by his quadrumanous members ; his strong rodent 

 teeth, enabling him to tear through the wood ; and lastly by the 

 curious slender finger, unlike that of any other animal, and which 

 he used alternately as a pleximeter, a probe, and a scoop. 



" But I was yet to learn another peculiarity. I gave him water 

 to drink in a saucer, on which he stretched out a hand, dipped a 

 finger into it, and drew it obliquely through his open mouth ; and 

 this he I'epeated so rapidly, that the water seemed to flow into his 

 mouth. After a while he lapped like a cat ; but his first mode of 

 drinking appeared to me to be his way of reaching water in the 

 deep clefts of trees. 



I am told that the Aye-Aye is an object of veneration at Mada- 

 gascar, and that if any native touches one, he is sure to die within 

 the year ; hence the difficulty of obtaining a specimen. I over- 

 came this scruple by a reward of £10, 



" I quite despair of obtaining the bones of the Dinornis or Dodo, 

 though I have made every efibrt. I shall always be proud to be 

 of service. 



" Believe me, yours very faithfully, 



"H. Sandwith." 



On the Moulting of the common Lobster {Homarus vulgaris) and 

 Shore Crab (Carcimis mcenas). By S. James A. Salteb, 

 M.B., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



[Read April 7th, 1859.] 



I AM induced to bring this subject before the Linnean Society, on 

 account of the singularly perfect specimen of the thro vm-off" slough 

 of a Lobster which I have now an opportunity of exhibiting, and 

 because the process by which it was shed was witnessed and care- 

 fully watched by two competent observers — by my friend Mr. 

 Robert Cooke, of Scarborough, a Fellow of this Society, and by 

 the intelligent wife of the Curator of the Scarborough Museum, 

 in an aquarixun in which institution the occiu-rence took place. 



The methods by which certain of the Decapod Crustaceans cast 

 their old shells in the process of renewal and growth have already 

 been made the subject of observation and record. 



Eeaumur, as early as 1712, and again in 1718, saw and described 



