CHAP. 51.—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF CRABS; THE PINNOTHERES, THE SEA URCHIN, COCKLES, AND SCALLOPS.
There are various kinds of crabs,[1] known as carabi,[2] astaci,[3]
maiæ,[4] paguri,[5] heracleotici,[6] lions,[7] and others of less
note. The carabus differs[8] from other crabs, in having a tail:
in Phoenicia they are called hippoi,[9] or horses, being of such
extraordinary swiftness, that it is impossible to overtake
them. Crabs are long-lived, and have eight feet, all of
which are bent obliquely. In the female[10] the first foot is
double, in the male single; besides which, the animal has two
claws with indented pincers. The upper part only of these
fore-feet is moveable, the lower being immoveable: the right
claw is the largest in them all.[11] Sometimes they assemble
together in large bodies; [12] but as they are unable to cross the
mouth of the Euxine, they turn back again and go round by
land, and the road by which they travel is to be seen all beaten
down with their foot-marks.
The smallest crab of any is that known as the pinnotheres,[13]
and hence it is peculiarly exposed to danger; its shrewdness,
however, is evinced by its concealing itself in the shell of the
oyster; and as it grows larger, it removes to those of a larger
size.
Crabs, when alarmed, go backwards as swiftly as when
moving forwards. They fight with one another like rams,
butting at each other with their horns. They have[14] a mode of
curing themselves of the bites of serpents. It is said,[15] that
while the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, the dead
bodies of the crabs, which are lying thrown up on the shore,
are transformed into serpents.
To the same class[16] also belongs the sea-urchin,[17] which has
spines in place of feet[18] its mode of moving along is to roll
like a ball, hence it is that these animals are often found with
their prickles rubbed off. Those among them which have the
longest spines of all, are known by the name of echinometræ,[19]
while at the same time their body is the very smallest. They
are not all of them of the same glassy colour; in the vicinity
of Torone[20] they are white,[21] with very short spines. The eggs[22]
of all of them are bitter, and are five in number; the mouth
is situate in the middle of the body, and faces the earth.[23] It is
said [24] that these creatures foreknow the approach of a storm at
sea, and that they take up little stones with which they cover[25]
themselves, and so provide a sort of ballast against their volubility, for they are very unwilling by rolling along to wear
away their prickles. As soon as seafaring persons observe
this, they at once moor their ship with several anchors.
(32.) To the same genus[26] also belong both land and water[27]
snails, which thrust the body forth from their abode, and
extend or contract two horns, as it were. They are without
eyes,[28] and have, therefore, to feel their way, by means of
these horns.
(33.) Sea-scallops[29] are considered to belong to the same
class, which also conceal themselves during severe frosts and
great heats; the onyches,[30] too, which shine in the dark like
fire, and in the mouth even while being eaten.
1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, has a somewhat similar passage.
"The kinds of crabs are numerous, and not easily to be enumerated.
First, there are those known as maim, then the paguri, which are also
called 'heracleotici;' and, after them, the river crabs. There are others,
again, of a smaller size, and which, for the most part, are known by no
name in particular."
2. This is, no doubt, the cray-fish, the same animal that has been called
the "locusta" in the preceding Chapter. Aristotle states, B. iv. c. 8, that
the carabus has the thorax rough and spiny. It is most probable, that it
is from this name that our word "crab" is derived.
3. Cuvier says, that the astacus, which is very accurately described by
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, is indisputably the homard of the
French (the common lobster of the English); the Cancer gammarius of
Linnæus. Pliny, in another place, B. xxx. c. ii., describes it himself under
the name of elephantus.
4. Cuvier remarks, that according to Aristotle, B. iv. c. 2, the maiæ are
in the number of the karki/noi, or crabs that have a short tail concealed
beneath the body, being those of the largest kind. The same philosopher,
De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, adds, that these have also short feet and a hard
shell. Cuvier says, that many writers have applied this name to the crabs
at the present day belonging to the genus inachus, and more especially the
Cancer maia of Linnæus. He is more inclined, however, to think that the
maia was the common French crab, known as poupart or tourtue, the
Cancer pagurus of Linnæus.
5. Hardouin says, that these are the same that the Venetians were in the
habit of calling "cancro poro," the last word being a corruption, as he
thinks, of pagurus. Aristotle says, loc. cit., that they were crabs of middling size.
6. Or Heracleotic crabs. Aristotle says, De Partib. Anim. B. iv. c. 8,
that these crabs had shorter feet and thinner than those of the maiæ.
Cuvier suggests, that these may be the commonest kind of crab, the Cancer
Mænas of Linnæus, or a species very similar.
7. "Leones." This name is not found in Aristotle's account, but it is
found in Athenæus, B. iii. c. 106; and in Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xiv. c. 9.
According to Diphilus, as quoted by Atheneus, it was of larger size than
the astacus. Ælian describes it as more slender in shape than the crayfish, and partly of a bluish colour, and with very large forcipes, in which
it resembles, Cuvier says, the homard of the French. It is possible, however, he adds, that it may have been only a second name given to the
astacus already mentioned; as both Pliny and Ælian, who were not critical observers, are very liable to make errors in names.
8. Aristotle, Cuvier observes, states the carcini, or crabs, have no tail,
the fact being that the tail is extremely small, and is concealed, as it were,
in a furrow in the under part of the body. The cray-fish, on the other
hand, has a large and broad tail.
9. (Ippoi\. The more common reading is i(ppe=is, "horsemen." Cuvier
thinks, that in all probability, these are a kind of crab with very long legs,
vulgarly known as the sea-spider; the Macropodia and the Leptopodia of
Linnæus.
10. Hardouin remarks, that Aristotle says this only of the carabi, or
cray-fish, and not of the crabs in general; and that, on the contrary, in B.
v. c. 7, he says, that in the crab the male does not differ in conformation
from the female, except in the opercule. There seems, in reality, to be
no foundation for the statement here made by Pliny.
11. Both in the crab and the cray-fish, Aristotle says.
12. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 24, calls this kind of crab dromi/as,
the "runner," from the great distance it is known to travel. He says,
that they meet together, coming in one by one, at a certain bay in the
Thracian Bosporus, where those who have arrived wait for the others; and
that on finding that the waves of the Euxine are sufficiently violent to
sweep them away, they unite in a dense body, and then waiting till the
waters have retired, make a passage across the straits.
13. Cuvier remarks, that Hardouin is correct in considering this the same
as the crab known in France as Bernard the Hermit (our hermit-crab), tile
Cancer Bernardus of Linnæus, a species of the genus now known as the
Pagur. This animal hides its tail and lower extremities in the empty shells
of whelks, or other univalves. Cuvier suggests that our author committed
a slip of the pen, in using the word oyster here for shell-fish. This is the
karki/nion, probably, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 16, and De Part.
Anim. B. iv. c. 8; and it is most probable that, as Cuvier states, the real
pinnoth/rhs of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 4, and B. v. c. 14, was
another of the crustacea, of which Pliny speaks under the same name in
c. 66. This last is a small crab, that lives in the shells of bivalves, such
as mussels, &, but not when empty. See the Notes to c. 66.
14. This circumstance is more fully treated of in B. xxxii. c. 19,
15. Our author speaks rather more guardedly here than usual; and Har-
douin seems almost inclined to believe the story. Ovid also alludes to this
story in the Met. B. xv. 1. 370, et seq. "If you take off the bending claws
from the crab of the sea-shore, and bury the rest in the earth, a scorpion
will come forth from the part so buried, and will threaten with its crooked
tail."
16. Of animals covered with a thin crust.
17. The sea-urchin, the herisson de mer of the French, and the Echinus
of Linnæus.
18. Cuvier remarks, that it does not use the spines or prickles for this
purpose, but that it moves by means of tentacules, which it projects from
between its prickles.
19. The Echinus cidaris of Linnæus; with a small body, and very long
spines. The name, according to Hardouin, is from the Greek, meaning
the "mother of the echini."
20. See B. iv. c. 17.
21. The same, Cuvier says, with the Echinus spatagus of Linnæus.
22. Not "ova," Cuvier says, but "ovaria" rather. Each urchin has five
"ovaria," arranged in the form of stars. They are supposed to be hermaphroditical, but there is considerable doubt on the subject.
23. The mouth of the sea-urchin, armed with five teeth, is generally turned
to the ground, Cuvier says.
24. Plutarch, in his Book "on the Instincts of Animals." Oppian, Halieut.
B. ii. 1. 225, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 44, all mention this.
25. This idea probably arose from the fact of their being sometimes found
with stones sticking between their spines or prickles.
26. The thin-crusted animals.
27. Known to us as periwinkles.
28. It is now known, thanks to the research of Swammerdam, that the
black points at the extremity of the great horns of the land snail, or Helix
terrestris, and at the base of them in the water snail, are eyes.
29. "Pectines in mari;" literally, "sea-combs." The French still call
them by a similar name, "peignes." They are known also in France as
"coquilles de St. Jaques," or St. James's shells; probably, because worn
by pilgrims who had visited the shrine of St. Jago, at Compostella. In-
deed, the scallop shell was a favourite emblem with the palmers and pilgrims of the middle ages, who were in the habit of wearing it on their
return in the hat.
30. He Latinizes the Greek name, calling it "unguis"—"a nail;" and,
according to Varro, they were so called from their resemblance to the human nail. Pliny mentions them again in c. 87 of this Book, and in B.
xxxii. c. 53, where he states that they are also called "dactyli," or "fingers." Cuvier says, that under this name are meant the pholades, a bivalve shell-fish, which give forth a very brilliant light.