OX CRUSTACEA. 
311 
and carried along by the waves. Fifteen days are still re- 
quired before the young palinurus issues from its egg. The 
female, according to Aristotle, folds back the broad part of her 
tail to compress the eggs, at the moment when they issue 
from the body, and elongates the inferior leaflets, so that they 
may receive and retain them. This is her first laying. The 
females, after the second, or that in which they get rid of all 
the rest of their eggs, are thin, and but little esteemed, and the 
males are then in greater request. Coupling takes place at 
the commencement of spring, and then more males are caught 
than females, while the latter are, on the contrary, more 
abundant on the coasts at the end of spring and the com- 
mencement of summer. Aristotle also describes the moulting, 
which he had well observed, and says that it takes place in 
spring, and sometimes in autumn. These Crustacea abandon 
our shores towards the end of this last season, or on the 
approach of winter, gain the high sea, and proceed to conceal 
themselves in the clefts or caverns of the rocks. It is there 
also that they change skin. They seldom frequent any but 
rocky or stony places, live there on fish and divers marine 
animals, and attain, after some years, to the length of a foot, 
measured from the head to the extremity of the tail. In 
V 
some places, but little favourable to fishing, these Crustacea, 
being less exposed, and more tranquil, may live a very long 
time, and acquire a very large size ; some have been observed 
nearly three feet in length. 
M. Bisso tells us, that the males seek their females in 
April and in August ; that in coupling the two sexes are face 
to face, and press so strongly, that they are separated with 
difficulty, even when they are out of the water ; and that the 
eggs descend along the belly, and issue forth through the 
anus. 
This naturalist informs us, that on the coasts of Nice they 
