C 40 ] 
VIII. Some farther Ohfervatiom on the Can.- 
cer major ; communicated in a Letter to 
Mr . Kleine, Secretary of Dantzick, by 
Mr. Peter Collinfon, F. R. S, 
My dear friend, London, Jan. 1. 1750. 
Read Jan. 24. A $ y OU feem to doubt, that crabs and 
1/30 t \ lobfters call or fhed their fhefls, tho’ 
I am certain it is fadl and truth, I am dcfirous you 
ihould be iatisfied from undoubted accounts, which 
I have procured from my coufin Cooke, who lives 
in the Ifle of Wight, where crabs are in great plenty, 
and the fifhermen very honeft people, whom he has 
known many years, and from whom and his own 
obfervations is colledted the following account. 
That the cancer ?najor , and all fpecies of crabs, 
caft their fhells, is certain ; but at what feafon of 
the year, or how frequently, is not exadtly to be de- 
termined j but it is believed to be annually at the be- 
ginning of the fummer, fooner or later, according 
to the greater or lefter ftrength of the crab. 
If you obferve the fhell of this creature, you will 
fee in the under part a future in the form of a cre- 
fcent, which retains a part of the fhell of the fame 
figure. At the time of calling the old fhell, this fu* 
ture opens, and leaves a fpace fufficient for drawing 
out the whole body ; after which the thorax drops 
its breaft-plate, and then the legs quit their crufta- 
ceous coverings. 
The carcafe now is left inveloped with a foft fkin 
like wet parchment. In this helplefs flate it is inca- 
pable 
