THE VICTORIAN' NATURALIST. 



synonyme in our language for anything that 13 cross-grained, 

 crooked, and disagreeable — e.g., we hear of " crab-apples,^'' which 

 '■ are anything but agreeable to the taste, and of " crab-sticks," as 

 people with an unpleasant infirmity of temper are called. Again, 

 we are all aware of that humiliating /awa; pas in rowing, technically 

 called " catching a crab," and what disgust it occasions to the 

 oarsman ; whilst the Latin word " Cancer" — a crab — has given the 

 name to a very agonii^ing and fatal disease which, unhappily, is far 

 too prevalent in this colony. Talking, however, about " Cancer" 

 reminds me that that is also the name of an astronomical 

 constellation, and one of the signs of the Zodiac, so that it would 

 seem that the ancients had a much higher opinion of our crustacean 

 hero than we have, in that they have exalted him to the stars ; but 

 even in this there is an element of disagreeableness, for to a large 

 proportion of the human race when the sun is in " Cancer" it is 

 fiery hot, whilst to those who, like ourselves, live in this southern 

 latitude it is "biting" cold. To descend, however, to sublunary 

 matters, to speak of him from a gastronomic point of view, the 

 importance of Mr. Crab as an article of diet has been fully 

 recognised by both ancients and moderns, and though on our own 

 immediate sea coast they do not attain to such a size as to be in 

 much demand for the table, a very much larger species than we 

 have here is caught at Portland, and often finds its way to the 

 Melbourne market, and is esteemed a delicacy that is unmixed 

 with anything that is disagreeable, unless it be the thickness of the 

 shell and the difficulty of getting at the inside. 



But, to proceed with the natural history of crabs, I have often 

 been impressed with the desire for more simplicity in zoological 

 descriptions, and for the avoidance, as much as possible, of hard 

 technical terms, and my feeling in the matter was very much 

 strengthened by a lecture that I had the pleasure of listening to 

 some time ago at Ormond College, and which was given by a 

 prominent member of the Field Naturalists' Club. So, in speaking 

 of crabs to-night, I shall use as popular language as I can, and, 

 where it is absolutely necessary to use a few long words, will 

 explain them as I go on for the benefit of the junior members of 

 the Club. 



Crabs, then, belong to that great sub-kingdom of the animal 

 world called " articulata," or jointed animals, and to that particular 

 class of it called the Crustacea. The Crustacea, the name of which 

 is derived from the Latin word "crusta," a crust or hard covering, 

 are so called because their outer skin is hardened by the deposition 

 in it of a substance which is partly calcareous like the shells of 

 ordinary shell-fish, and partly chitinous like the hard covering of 

 beetles. This covering, popularly called the shell, envelopes the 



