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You have often seen these curious creatures in the shops and on the stalls of fishmongers, and perhaps you will be both amused and instructed by hearing something of their history and habits.

If you should ask how these things are known, we must tell you that this is curious also. The men who get to know about these things are called naturalists. They watch such creatures day after day, and week after week, and then write down what they have noticed; and so we get to know all about them. This is called the science of Natural History, and it is very interesting. Many good men have engaged in it in the fear of the Great Creator of all-" for the works of the Lord are great; sought out of all them that have pleasure therein."

As the Crab is found upon land as well as in the water, the peculiarity of its situation produces a difference in its habits which it is proper to notice.

BUFFON gives some very curious particulars respecting Land Crabs. He says

The LAND CRAB is found in some of the warmer

regions of Europe, and in great abundance in all the tropical climates in Africa and America. They are of various kinds, and endued with various properties; some being healthful, delicious, and nourishing food; others poisonous or malignant to the last degree: some are not above half an inch broad; others are found a foot over: some are of a dirty brown, and others beautifully mottled.

The Violet Crab, of the Caribee Islands, is the most noted, both for its shape, the delicacy of its flesh, and the singularity of its manners.

It somewhat resembles two hands cut through the middle and joined together; for each side looks like four fingers, the two claws resemble the thumbs. All the rest of the body is covered with a shell as large as a man's hand, and bunched in the middle, on the fore-part of which there are two long eyes of the size of a grain of barley, as transparent as crystal, and as hard as horn. A little below these is the mouth, covered with a sort of barbs, under which there are two broad, sharp teeth, as white as snow. They are not placed cross-ways, as in other animals, but in the opposite direction, not much unlike the blade of a pair of scissors. With these teeth they can easily cut leaves, fruit, and rotten wood, which is their usual food. But their principal instrument for cutting and seizing their food is their nippers, which catch such a hold, that the animal loses the limb sooner than its grasp, and is often seen scampering off, having left its claw still holding fast upon the enemy. In fact it loses no great matter by losing a leg or an arm, for they soon grow again, and the animal is found as per fect as before. But this is the least surprising part of this creature's history. They live not only in a kind of society in their retreats in the mountains, but regularly once a year march down to the sea-side, in a body of some millions at a time. As they multiply in great numbers, they choose the months of April or

May to begin their expedition; and then sally out by thousands from the stumps of hollow trees, the clefts of rocks, and from the holes which they dig for themselves under the surface of the earth. At that time the whole ground is covered with this band of adventurers; there is no stepping without treading upon them. They direct their march with great precision. They neither turn to the right nor left, whatever obstacles intervene; and even if they meet with a house, they will attempt to scale the walls to keep the unbroken tenor of their way.

But though this be the general order of their route, they are sometimes obliged to conform to the face of the country; and if it be intersected by rivers, they are then seen to wind along the course of the stream. The procession sets forward from the mountains with the regularity of an army under the guidance of an experienced commander. They are commonly divided into three battalions; of which the first consists of the strongest and boldest males, who, like pioneers, march forward to clear the route, and face the greatest dangers. These are often obliged to halt for want of rain, and go into the most convenient encampment till the weather changes.

The main body of the army is composed of females, which never leave the mountains till the rain is set in for some time, and then descend in regular battalions, being formed into columns of fifty paces broad, and three miles deep, and so close that they almost cover the ground. Three or four days after this, the rear-, guard follows; an undisciplined, straggling tribe, consisting of males and females, but neither so robust nor so numerous as the former. The night is their chief time of proceeding; but if it rains by day, they do not fail to profit by the occasion. When the sun shines and is hot upon the surface of the ground, they then make a universal halt, and wait till the cool of the evening.

When they are terrified, they march back in a confused, disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they sometimes tear off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon where they inflicted the wound. They even try to intimidate their enemies; for they often clatter their nippers together, as if it were to threaten those that come to disturb them.

But though they thus strive to be formidable to man, they are much more so to each other; for they are possessed of one most unsocial property, which is, that if any of them by accident is maimed in such a manner as to be incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on the spot, and then pursue their journey.

When, after a fatiguing march, and escaping a thousand dangers, for they are sometimes three months in getting to the shore, they have arrived at the destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn. For this purpose the crab has no sooner reached the shore, than it eagerly goes to the edge of the water, and lets the waves wash over its body two or three times. After this preparation, without farther delay, they withdraw to seek a lodging upon land; in the meantime the spawn grows larger, exactly resembling the roes of herrings. In this state they once more seek the shore, for the last time, and shaking off their spawn into the water, leave accident to bring it to maturity. While shoals of hungry fish at this time are near the shore, and about two-thirds of the crab's eggs are immediately devoured by these rapacious invaders. The eggs that escape are hatched under the sand, and soon after many millions at a time of these little crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly travelling up to the mountains.

The old ones, however, are not so active to return; they have become so feeble and lean, that they can hardly crawl along, and the flesh at that time changes its colour. Most of them, therefore, are obliged to

continue in the flat parts of the country till they recover, making holes in the earth, which they cover at the mouth with leaves and dirt, so that no air may enter. There they throw off their old shells, which they leave as it were quite whole. At that time they are quite naked, and almost without motion for six days together, when they become so fat as to be delicious food. They have then under their stomachs four large white stones, which gradually decrease as the shell hardens, and when they come to perfection are not to be found. It is at that time that the animal is to be seen slowly making its way back; and this is most commonly performed in six weeks,

The Soldier Crab in like manner descends from its mountains, but for purposes still more important and various. Its descent is not only to produce an offspring, but to provide itself a covering; not only to secure a family, but to furnish a house.

It has some similitude to the lobster, if divested of its shell. It is generally about four inches long, has no shell behind, but is covered down to the tail with a rough skin, terminating in a point. It is, however, armed with strong hard nippers before, like the lobster; and one of them is as thick as a man's thumb, and pinches most powerfully. It is, as was said, without a shell to any part except its nippers; but taking possession of the deserted shell of some other animal, it resides in it, till, by growing too large for its habitation, it is under a necessity of change.

It is a native of the West India Islands, and, like the former, is seen every year descending from the mountains to the sea-shore, to deposit its spawn, and to provide itself with a new shell. This is a most

bustling time with it, having so many things to do. It is very probable that its first care is to provide for its offspring before it attends to its own wants; and it is thought, from the number of shells it is seen ex

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