PAPA. It is indeed, and I believe it often proves fatal. Previous to it the animal appears sick, languid, and restless; it seeks some very lonely place for fear of being devoured by such of its brethren as are not in the same helpless condition, and having safely concealed itself, it makes an effort and bursts the shell down the back; it then draws out the fore-legs, or claws, something as a gentleman pulls off his boots, and having disengaged its legs and body, last of all draws out its tail. MAMA. The common, or black-clawed crabs, are more charitable to each other during this operation than the lobsters are, if what Dr. Darwin tells us is correct. He says that a hard-shelled crab always stands sentinel to prevent the sea animals from injuring the rest in their defenceless state, and that from his appearance, the fishermen know where to find the soft ones, which they use for baits in catching fish. He adds that though the hard-shelled crab, when he is on duty, will advance boldly to meet the foe, yet at other times he shews great timidity, and is very expeditious in effecting his escape: if however, he be often interrupted, he will, like the spider, pretend to be dead, and watch an opportunity to sink himself into the sand, keeping only his eyes above.

PAPA. That is a curious example of instinct.

HENRY.-Does the lobster, when he casts off his shell, part with the lining of the stomach too?

PAPA.-Yes, and with his teeth also, which are placed, as you perhaps know, in his stomach. All is parted with together; and Dr. Darwin asserts that the first food the animal takes after recovering its strength is its old stomach.

ANNA. What a poor defenceless creature it must be when it has lost its shell.

PAPA. It is, indeed, at first; it is, however, covered with a membranous skin, which dilates and hardens, and being supplied with a calcareous substance, becomes, in two or three days, a new shell.

HENRY.-Whence is the animal supplied with this calcareous substance, Father?

PAPA.--From two little balls which are on each side of the head; they are called crabs-eyes, and were formerly much used in medicine.

ANNA. They are not the real eyes; are they, Papa? PAPA.-No, my dear; the real eyes are here, you see, on these little protuberances or pedicles, which project from the head; and very convenient eyes they are for them; for being elevated on these moveable bases, they enable them to see readily every way.

HENRY.-Have lobsters the sense of hearing?

PAPA.-Yes; and so have some animals inferior to them: they are, however, I believe, the lowest species in which the organ of hearing can be distinctly perceived. It is placed here, near the pedicles which support the eyes.

Do you observe, Anna, the difference in the two claws of the lobster? the one, you see, is furnished with knobs to enable it to keep firm hold of the plants and other things it feeds on; it is what fishermen call the numb claw; and the other is jagged and sharp like a saw, for the purpose of cutting and mincing its food That on the left side is the numb claw.

ANNA.
PAPA.

It is, in this lobster; but it is sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other.

HENRY.-How would you like it should catch hold of your finger with its cutting claw, Anna?

ANNA. Not at all;-I should think he could bite very hard with it.

PAPA.-Indeed he can. If ever you should be so caught, the quickest way of getting rid of it would be to tear off the claw.

ANNA. But that would be so cruel.

PAPA.-No, it would not cost him much suffering, I apprehend: indeed it is an operation he does not scruple to perform upon himself. If by any accident he loses part of his claw, he casts off the rest.

ANNA. That is strange indeed. But what does he do without it?

PAPA. He is not without one long. Another quickly begins to grow from the part where the first had been torn off, and in a few weeks he is supplied with a new one; which, though not quite so large, answers his purpose as well as that he has lost.

HENRY.-That accounts for a circumstance I have often observed, that the claws of lobsters are sometimes of different sizes.

ANNA. But why should he tear it off himself?

PAPA.-Because a whole claw is replaced more speedily than a part of one.

HENRY.-What do lobsters feed on, Father?

PAPA. They are very voracious animals, and are not very nice in their eating. They feed, I believe, on seaweed, garbage, and all sorts of dead bodies.

HENRY. I remember seeing a great many when I was at Scarborough.

PAPA.-I dare say you did. Filey Bridge, near Scarborough, is a famous place for catching them. They are also found in great quantities on the shore of Northumberland, and indeed on most of the rocky coasts of our island.

HENRY.-I talked with the fishermen there a good deal about them, and was surprised to learn that they are afraid of thunder.

PAPA. I believe that is a well-authenticated fact: they will not unfrequently cast their claws at a loud clap. It is said they will do the same on the firing of a great gun, and that when a man-of-war meets a lobster boat, a jocular threat is used, that if the master does not sell them good lobsters, they will salute him.

ANNA.-Are lobsters active creatures?

PAPA.-Yes, very active. In the water they run nimbly on their legs or small claws; and if alarmed, they can spring tail foremost, to an amazing distance, almost as fast as a bird can fly.

HENRY. And I was told that they will spring from a considerable distance and throw themselves into their

hold in the rock in that manner, through an entrance scarcely large enough for their bodies to pass.

PAPA. I believe they will. It is surprising how they do it.

ANNA. Are shrimps and prawns of the same genus as lobsters?

PAPA. Yes. You know how to distinguish them, I dare say the prawn has a long saw-like horn in front of its head; the shrimp is considerably smaller, and instead of the horn, has two thin, projecting laminæ. Like the lobster they can spring backwards to very considerable distances; and they may sometimes be seen leaping in multitudes on the shore, apparently amusing themselves with the exercise of their activity.

MAMA. The hermit crab appears to me the most singular in its habits of all the crab tribes. It has no shell to any part but its nippers, and is therefore obliged to supply by art what is denied by nature: this it does by taking possession of the deserted shell of some other animal, which it inhabits, till by becoming too large for its habitation, it is under the necessity of changing it. ANNA. Is it a large creature?

MAMA.-It is usually about four inches long. The account I have read of this animal is curious enough. It may be seen in some countries busily parading the seashore along that line of pebbles and shells which is formed by the furthest waves; still, however, dragging its old incommodious habitation at its tail, unwilling to part with one shell, even though a troublesome appendage, till it can meet with another more convenient. It stops first at one shell, turns it, passes by; then goes to another, contemplates that for a while, and slipping its tail from the old habitation, tries on the new one. If this be found inconvenient, it quickly resumes the old one. It thus frequently changes, till at length it finds one that is light, roomy and commodious. When such a shell is found, two or three of them may be seen fighting for it, till the weakest is compelled to yield.

PAPA.-Crabs in general are very quarrelsome creatures; they frequently have serious contests by means of those formidable weapons, their great claws.

HENRY.-Will they not live a great while without

food?

PAPA. Yes. Fishermen say, that they will live confined in a basket for many months without any other food than what they derive from the sea-water; and that even in this situation they will not decrease in weight.

ANNA. I suppose all crabs live in the sea. PAPA. They are chiefly inhabitants of the sea; some, however, live in the fresh waters, and a few on land.

Z. Z.

DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH TREES.
No. XXIII.

Hazel-Nux.

THE Hazel, Corylus, or Nux Silvestris, is a tree much valued for its fruit, and in many ways useful, though never growing to sufficient size for timber. The flower is a small blossom of the most beautiful red, found on the branches in the middle of January. The fruit needs not to be described. What we call Filberts are not a different species, but merely a variety, supposed to have their name, Full-beards, from their longer brushes.

"The use of the Hazel is for poles, spars, hoops, forks, angling rods, faggots, cudgeols, coals, and springes to catch birds. There is no wood which purifies wine sooner than chips of Hazel.”—EVELYN.

Evelyn tells us, the Hazel cut in the form of a fork, had many magical properties formerly, for which it was made into divining rods, to detect murders, discover the situation of springs, and other subterraneous treasures, which we need not now certify.

"But the most signal honour it was ever employed in, which might deservedly exalt this humble and common plant above all the trees of the wood, is that of hurdles; not for that it is generally used for