TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 53 



bottom and become walk-about animals for the rest of 

 their days. Other crustaceans, before attaining their 

 final form, pass through analogous metamorphoses. 



"The moulting time must be, I should think, a 

 most disagreeable moment in the existence of these 

 creatures. As a rule, the crustacean with his armour, 

 like a knight of the Middle Ages, fears, so to say, 

 no thing nor person. It sometimes happens that he 

 leaves a claw or a leg on the field of battle, but he 

 accepts his loss like a Stoic ; it grows again, and he 

 knows it. But as soon as he has shed his armour the 

 position is quite different ; while awaiting for his new 

 cuirass to attain the necessary solidity, this creature, 

 who was himself quite recently an insatiable Gar- 

 gantua, becomes a dainty mouthful for all sorts of 

 creatures, including occasionally some of his own 

 kindred. Crustaceans have not the conscientious 

 scruples of wolves, who, so they say, do not eat one 

 another. It is worth seeing, at the moment of moult- 

 ing, how carefully they conceal themselves for fear of 

 having to submit to the same fate as that to which 

 they have submitted so many others." 



"A fair requital, as things go here below/' said 

 Bene" philosophically. " If it were not for that the lot 

 of a crustacean would be a too happy one. " 



While saying this he was amusing himself by turn- 

 ing over on the table a great crab, whose hind-body 

 was covered to a considerable extent by a sort of 



