DECAPODA. 293 



easily digested. The body of some Palinuri attains the length of a metre. 

 Their claws are efficacious weapons, and have such power in large individuals, 

 that they have been seen to seize a goat, and drag it from the shore. They 

 usually inhabit water, but do not instantly perish when deprived of it ; some 

 species even pass a part of their lives on land. Even they are compelled to fix 

 their domicil either in burrows, or in cool, damp places. The Decapoda are 

 voracious and carnivorous. Certain species even penetrate into cemeteries, 

 and devour the dead. Their limbs are regenerated with surprising promp- 

 titude, but it is requisite that the fracture be at the junction of the articula- 

 tions, and yet when accident determines it otherwise, they know how to apply 

 a remedy. When they wish to change their skin, they seek a retired and 

 solitary spot, in order to be sheltered from their enemies, and to remain at rest. 

 When the change is effected, their body is soft, and has a more exquisite 

 flavour. A chemical analysis of the old shell proves it to be formed of the 

 carbonate and phosphate of lime, united in different proportions with gelatine. 



FAMILY I. 



BRACHYURA*. 



TAIL shorter than the trunk, without appendages or fins at the extremity, 

 and doubled under in a state of rest, when it is received in a fossula on the 

 chest. Triangular in the males, and only furnished at base with four or two 

 appendages in the form of horns, the superior of which are the largest, ' it 

 becomes widened and convex in the females, presenting beneath four pairs of 

 double hairy filaments, destined to support the ova, and analogous to the sub- 

 caudal natatory feet of the Macroura, and others. 

 . This family may constitute but one genus, that of 



CAN T CEK, Linnceus, 



Or the Crabs. Naturalists, however, have now divided them into the Swim- 

 mers, Arcuated, Quadrilateral, Orbicular, Triangular, &c., differing in shape, 

 the number and form of the spines or teeth, the relative proportion of the 

 eyes and their pedicles, &c. Each of these sections are again divided into 

 numerous genera. 



Among the most noted of these we find the Land Crabs of intertropical 

 countries. Their habits are a constant source of interest to travellers, but by 

 abstracting from their accounts all improbable and doubtful facts, their 

 history will be as follows. The greater portion of their life is passed on land, 

 where they secrete themselves in holes, from which they never issue but at 



* Short-tailed. 



