FISH IN HERALDRY. 75 



ster, as an enemy to serpents, was," says Moule, " some- 

 times used as an emblem of temperance, and two lobsters 

 fighting as an emblem of sedition." The union of a 

 lobster with the human form is an impresa of very old 

 date, but the families on the Continent that bear this 

 crustacean for a badge probably refer it back to no earlier 

 times than the chivalric days when knights went forth to 

 fight in that armour of overlapping plates which were 

 called " ecrivisses." Prawns and shrimps are among the 

 heraldic bearings of the Crafords and Atseas of Kent ; 

 and the crayfish, also an English crest, was the badge 

 of the Prince of Orange, and betrayed that warrior to 

 imprisonment when he had hoped to escape identifi- 

 cation among a heap of the killed after the battle of 

 St. Aubin du Cormier. The crab frequently recurs the 

 golden crabs of the Scropes, Danbys, and Bythesees being 

 instances. The turtle is not common, there being perhaps 

 only six in English heraldry ; and among the miscellanea of 

 the sea are found the starfish, sea-urchins (Echinidae), and 

 numerous shellfish. 



A scallop on a shield shows, or should show, that an 

 ancestor had been in the Crusades, as it was the cognizance 

 of St. James, and after him of all who fought against the 

 infidels, and so of all pious pilgrims. The badge of the 

 Order of St. James of Spain is a sword with a cross 

 handle and a scallop on the pommel. The same shell 

 forms the badge and collar of the Order of St. James 

 in Holland, and Saint Louis instituted the " Order of the 

 Ship and Escallop " for the decoration of the nobility who 

 accompanied him to the Holy Land. The collar of the 

 Order of St. Michael, founded by Louis XL, was garnished 

 with golden scallops. The cockle, whelk, and several of 

 the genera Turbo and Cyprcea found among modern crests 



