112 A CRUSTACEOUS AKMORY. 



But, asks the gasping reader, what has this parade 

 of mail-clad warriors and old battle-fields to do with 

 so prosaic a theme as the exuviation of crabs ? I 

 must acknowledge that the question is a very 

 natural one, for there appears at first sight no con- 

 nection between the two subjects. The analogy will 

 not, I believe, appear so forced when I mention my 

 possession of a smaller, although hardly less singular 

 armory, consisting of various coats of shelly mail, 

 each of which, at one time or other, belonged to, 

 and was worn by a living creature, and proved as 

 effectual a protection in many fierce though bloodless 

 combats as any casque or helmet worn by knight. 

 Unlike the dummies of the Tower, my specimens are 

 perfect, and give a complete representation, more 

 truthful than any photograph, of the defunct originals, 

 when armed by Nature cap-a-pie. 



In plain words, I own a curious collection of the 

 cast-off shells of various crabs, which have from time 

 to time been under my protection. From the fact 

 that no museum in the kingdom contains a single 

 series of such objects, exhibiting the various stages 

 of growth in any crustaceous animal, the reader will 

 easily conceive the difficulty there must be in pro- 

 curing them, and consequently the interest that 

 attaches to the mysterious phenomenon of exuvia- 

 tion. 



Strange to say, the subject of this chapter is one 

 of the least known in the whole range of natural 



