298 SUPPLEMENT 



birth to dangers without number, which they have even some 

 difficulty in escaping at a later period, the wisdom of Nature 

 has again provided for them, for some time, a reti'eat under the 

 tail of the mother. It does not appear that any one has ever 

 happened to eat of the astaci when thus provided with their 

 little ones. When the mother is tranquil in the water, these 

 little shell-fish may be seen coming out from between her legs, 

 and venturing to creep around her, and then, in the moment 

 of danger, withdrawing altogether into their asylum. It ap- 

 pears that the mother warns them of what they ought to fear, 

 for it is never without a motive that they fly in this manner. 

 They nevertheless abandon the mother by little and little, in 

 proportion as they increase in size ; and they are seen but 

 little with her towards the end of the first fifteen days after 

 their birth. 



The colour of the astaci is of a greenish brown in those of 

 the rivers (craw-fish), and of a reddish brown, spotted with 

 blue, or some other colour, in those of the sea. But whatever 

 be their colour during life, it always becomes a deep red by 

 boiling or the action of acids. The common lobster, however, 

 sometimes occurs red in the living state. A specimen, which 

 vras caught on the coast of Norway, was lately presented by 

 the editor to the British Museum : it was alive, perfectly red, 

 and had all the appearance of having been boiled. 



One of the most astonishing facts which the history of the 

 astaci, and probably of almost all the other Crustacea, presents 

 to our observation, is the regeneration of their claws and feet 

 when broken or torn oif by any accident. There are even 

 some species whose limbs are so slightly attached, that it is 

 sufficient to touch them, to put them near the fire, or even 

 simply to inspire an apprehension of danger into the animals, 

 to determine the latter to abandon them in part or altogether. 

 This fact is so generally known, that no person has ever 

 thought of casting a doubt upon it. The ancients, at least 



