Crustacea. 7651 



a little longer. Peep again ; there its black eye is still shining at you, 

 and seems to wink. A ripple crosses the surface of the water. Pa- 

 tience ! 1 said you must have patience. Well, after a time you look 

 again ; the carapace is a little up, but the eye is watching still. " Ah ! 

 there you are again !" It seems to mock you, as the cautious creature 

 crouches closer in its corner. After being tricked many times, con- 

 tinually looking and leaving, which will be found the most successful 

 method of watching, you may see the process fully carried out. The 

 carapace is first raised; then the legs and the branchiae are drawn out 

 of the integuments, as fingers from a glove ; the tail is then with- 

 drawn ; and then the legs are raised up and pushed against the cara- 

 pace, which is pushed forwards over the head. I took one during the 

 process, and gradually, as it was raised, cut the carapace away with 

 a pair of scissors : the animal performed the process as usual until it 

 came to pushing it over its head, and here it entirely failed, because 

 the carapace, the portion against which it pushed its legs, was gone. 

 The skin by little and little was freed, until at last it hung only by the 

 eyes, and in this horrid condition the poor thing kept running about, 

 dragging the old skin with it, until its eyes were almost pulled out of 

 its head. No one can imagine the distress but an old gentleman who, 

 having taken off his coat, has hitched it to his spectacles and could 

 not get free. In this slate the poor crab remained, and probably 

 would have remained until decomposition of the soft parts had broken 

 the exuviae to pieces, had not charity come to its relief and pulled the 

 old skin away, an act which almost appeared to bring the eye-balls 

 with it, so firmly was it held. 



When the old skeleton is thrown the crab is soft, fleshy, and 

 incapable of defending itself, and is therefore very liable to fall a prey 

 to larger animals, both of its own and other kinds. The soldier crab, 

 which lives in the shell of a mollusk, retires within its abode, and 

 throws off first the anterior portion, which it tumbles out; and then, 

 with its cheliform legs, pulls off the posterior, which is a thin, pellucid 

 skin, and throws it outside also. Of danger it seems to be aware, 

 and, probably under the excitement of fear, is much more active 

 and less easily caught than at any other time. 



This process is not repeated so often in the adult as in the growing 

 crab. In the larva state it probably takes place every few days ; 

 as the animal grows older weeks intervene, then months, and lastly 

 the moult is but once a year, and it is probable that when age creeps 

 on the process is not repeated so often. 



This last statement is inferred from the fact that crabs have been 



