CRAB, a name common to all the species of short-tailed Decapod Crustaceans ( Brachyura), as well as to the forms intermediate between the short-tailed and long-tailed groups (Anomourd), and derived from the Latin Carabus, the name by which the common edible species was known to the Romans. The abdomen in the true crabs is short, and is completely folded beneath the breast. In the female this part is broad and rounded, and bears certain leafy appendages to which the ova are attached before spawning; in the male the abdomen is much narrower and is somewhat triangular in shape. Like all other Decapod Crustaceans crabs are furnished with ten legs, of which the anterior pair are modified so as to form nippers—powerful prehensile organs and principal weapons of offence. These are largest in the male, and the right claw is generally larger than the left. The other limbs usually end in a single claw, which in the posterior pair in swimming-crabs is more or less flattened and paddle-like ( Plate X. fig. 2). Their eyes, which are compound, are placed upon stalks, measuring in some instances an inch in length (Plate X. fig. 3), and these when not in use fit into cavities in the carapace or shell which covers the entire upper surface. Crabs, like insects, undergo metamorphosis. On emerging from the egg they are provided with long tails, swimming appendages, and sessile eyes, and bear so little resemblance to the parent form that until half a century ago their connection with the crab was altogether unsuspected. They were then known as zoeas. After moulting, the eyes appear on stalks and nippers on the anterior pair of legs, but this form is still sufficiently uncrablike to have deceived early zoologists, who described it as forming a distinct genus (Megalops), and it is not till ...a further casting of the skin that the creature assumes the perfect form. As its internal parts continue to grow its external shell soon becomes too small, and is cast off,—the crab generally concealing itself until its new and greatly enlarged covering gets sufficiently hardened. This process of moulting takes place very frequently in the young crab, and gradually becomes rarer as the creature approaches its full growth, crabs being often found with oysters attached to the carapace which from their size must have grown there for three or four years. A still more remarkable power is that possessed by crabs of reproducing limbs which have been voluntarily thrown off, or have been lost by accident. This renewal only takes place when the limb has been severed at the second articulation; but when broken at any point nearer the extremity the creature generally succeeds in throwing off the part between.
Among the numerous species of crabs which abound everywhere on or near the sea-coast tho following may be noticed.
(1) The Great or Edible Crab (Cancer pagurus), the Carabus of the Romans and the Partan of Scotland. This is one of the largest, and as an article of food is certainly the most valuable, of the short-tailed Decapods, being everywhere esteemed for the delicacy of its flavour. It abounds chiefly on the rocky parts of the coasts of Europe, and often measures 12 inches across the carapace, weighing in the larger specimens fully 12 lb. The principal British crab-fisheries are off the north-east coast of Scotland, in the Firth of Forth, and off the coast of Cornwall; and the home produce is largely supplemented by imports from Norway. In the capture of this crustacean “crab-pots,” made of wicker-work, with the entrance at the top, and baited with dead fish, are employed. These are sunk in the proper localities, and their position indicated by a piece of cork attached to a line connected with the wicker trap. In the sheltered bays of the west of Scotland this crab is also caught in calm weather by poking it from behind with a long pole, which the crustacean immediately seizes, and which is then gently shaken, making the crab adhere all the more tenaciously, and giving the fisherman the opportunity he seeks of hoisting it into his boat. When caught, crabs are kept alive till wanted by being placed in perforated boxes which are then sunk at some convenient spot in the sea. Those caught off Lizard Point are conveyed to Falmouth Harbour, where they are individually branded, and put in boxes which are then placed under water. Recently it was stated on good authority, that one of those cases having gone to pieces, thus liberating the imprisoned crabs, many of them were shortly after caught again on their old feeding-ground—a distance of eleven miles from the place where they had been confined. As they had been conveyed to Falmouth by boat, it is impossible with our present knowledge to say by what sense they were thus unerringly guided on their return journey.
(2) The Shore Crab (Carcinus maenas) is the species most commonly met with on all parts of the British coast. Although found in deep water, its favourite haunts are beneath the stones that lie between low and high water mark, and its awkward sidelong gait as it sidles off to its place of concealment must be familiar to the most casual observer of shore life. It is a shy creature, eluding observation beneath stones or buried in the sand, its telescopic eyes alone visible, and feigning death when unable otherwise to cope with danger. Unlike the former species, its legs, especially the posterior pair, are flattened and ciliated so as to form swimming organs. Owing probably to the small size of this species, it has obtained little prominence as an article of food, although in flavour it is said to rival the Great Crab. Large numbers, however, are eaten by the poorer classes in seaport towns, and they are also to be had in the London fish markets. They feed chiefly on the spawn of fish and the smaller crustaceans.
(3) Pea Crabs (Pinnotheres, Plate X. fig. 5) are small crustaceans ii which the sexes so differ that the males and females were at one time described as separate species. The female is larger than the male, and its external covering is softer; and they are further remarkable in taking up their residence in the shells of living bivalve mollusks, especially in the pinna, the cockle, and the mussel. The soft-bodied female is never found outside of its adopted shell, although the harder cased male is thus occasionally met with. The Pinna Pea Crab (Pinnotheres veterum), which abounds in the Mediterranean, makes its home in the pinna shell, and ancient writers have given highly imaginative descriptions of the object of this alliance between crustacean and mollusk. It was believed that on the entrance of food “within the gaping circuit of the shell,” the active little crab pricked the tender sides of its sluggish partner, who understanding the hint closed its shell upon the prey
“Thus fed by mutual aid, the friendly pair Divide their gains, and all the plunder share.”
(4) The Inachus Kempferi, found in Japanese waters, is the largest of known crabs. It measures 10 feet between the tips of its nippers, each of which is 5 feet in length. The body, however, is comparatively small and triangular in shape. It is said to be eaten by the Japanese.
(5) Land Crabs occur in various parts of the tropical world, and are especially abundant in the West Indies. The Violet Land Crab (Gecarcinus ruricola, Plate X. fig. 1) of Jamaica lives in communities and forms burrows in the ground, often two or three miles from the sea. These crabs are provided with powerful pincers, which they are not loath both to use and to lose, for when attacked they fix upon the enemy with their great claw, which is then thrown off, and as the muscles connected with it retain their tension for some time after the severance, the creature seeks to make its escape while pain is still being inflicted by the now independent claw. They remain in their burrows by day, and come forth at night in search of food, running about with great speed and retiring, when possible, to their holes, in the presence of danger. They renew their connection with the sea once a year, visiting it in order to deposit their spawn. They travel by night, directed by a powerful instinct which causes them to march straight for their destination, surmounting whatever difficulties may be in their way. At this season they are taken in great numbers, and their flesh is regarded as one of the chief delicacies of the island. Like their marine congeners they cast their shell, but unlike these, it is immediately after the moulting process that they are in best condition for the table. The Calling Crab (Gelasimus tetragonon) of Ceylon has its left claw exceedingly small, while its fellow is larger than all the rest of the body, and this it carries aloft as if brandishing a weapon (see Crustacea, fig. 65); while the Racer Crab (Ocypoda ceratoph-thalma) digs deep burrows in the sandy roads of that island, sufficient to render them dangerous for horsemen, were the holes not regularly filled up by a band of labourers.
(6) The Robber Crab (Birgus latro) belongs to that division (Anomoura) of the Decapod Crustaceans which forms a connecting link between crabs and lobsters, the abdominal segments not being folded beneath the breast as in true crabs. It is an inhabitant of the islands in the Indian Ocean, and makes its burrows under the cocoa-nut trees, the fruit of which forms its principal food. It was formerly supposed to ascend these trees and break off tho nuts, but the researches of Darwin, Bennet, and others seem to prove that they only make use of the nuts which they find already fallen. In order to get at the edible contents of these, they strip off the fibrous envelope so as to lay bare the eye-spots, into one of which they insert the sharp edge of a claw, and by working this backward and forward they gradually scoop out the substance of the nut. According to another authority, after inserting the claw, they sometimes proceed to crack the hard shell by beating it against a stone. The fibre which they remove from the nut is employed by them in lining their burrows; it is also gathered by the natives and made into mats, &c. The Robber Crab attains a length of 2 feet, and has usually a mass of fat under the tail which, according to Darwin, often yields when melted as much as a quart of limpid oil.
(7) In the Hermit Crabs (Paguridae, Plate X. fig. 7) the abdomen is soft and pulpy and destitute of protecting plates, the safety of this defenceless part being provided for by the entrance of those creatures into univalve shells to which they become so closely attached by means of certain hooked appendages of the abdomen, that it is impossible to drag a Hermit Crab from its adopted shell without tearing the body asunder. The mouth of the shell is guarded by the claw, the larger pincers of some of these crabs being, says Darwin, “most beautifully adapted when drawn back to form an operculum to the shell nearly as perfect as the proper one.” The most common and the largest of the British species is the Soldier Crab (Pagurus bernhardus, Plate X. fig. 4), to be seen at all seasons on our coasts, inhabiting a great variety of univalve shells from the tiny natica to the largest whelk, the latter being the shell usually chosen by the adult crab. It changes its residence so soon as it has outgrown the dimensions of the place, and its new premises seem to be generally selected with a view to the future growth of the creature. Dead shells appear in some cases to .be thus employed, but it is believed that in most instances the crab kills the mollusk in order to secure its shell. Hermit Crabs are largely used as bait. See Crustacea.
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CRABBE, George (1754-1832), was born at Aidborough, in Suffolk, December 24, 1754, and was the son of an officer of the customs. He appears to have been designed by his father first for an employment similar to his own, and afterwards for the medical profession. He was apprenticed to an apothecary, and received an education merely sufficient to qualify him for such an occupation, and by no means to advance him in that literary career in which he became eventually distinguished. His poetical taste was first elicited by the casual perusal of some verses in the Philosophical Magazine, which his father, who was a mathematician and averse to poetry, had separated from the scientific portions of that periodical, and thrown aside as unworthy. The spark thus kindled burnt steadily; and even while a schoolboy he versified much, and made sundry ambitious attempts in the highest walks of composition. The attainment of a prize offered by the editor of the Lady’s Magazine for a poem on Hope, although a humble species of success, sufficed to encourage him to renewed exertions; and in 1778 he quitted the profession of medicine, which ho had always disliked, and repaired to London, determined to apply himself to literature. His early efforts in his new career were attended with disheartening circumstances. The first poem he offered for publication could find no publisher. From the first that was printed he obtained no profit, in consequence of the publisher’s bankruptcy. It was entitled The Candidate, a Poetical Epistle to the Authors of the Monthly Review, and appeared anonymously in 1780. Soon afterwards he became acquainted with Burke, an acquaintance from which may be dated the dawn of his literary rise. "Without an introduction, and impelled by distress, he applied to Burke, ...who kindly took him by the hand, afforded him the advantage of his criticism and advice, recommended him to Dodsley the publisher, invited him to his house, and made him known to many distinguished men of that time, among whom were Reynolds, Johnson, and Fox. Crabbe’s first published poems, after the commencement of his acquaintance with Burke, were The Library and The Village, both of wshich received the benefit of Burke’s observations, and the second of which was in a great measure composed at Beaconsfield. In 1781 Crabbe, who by the recommendation of Burke had been qualifying himself for holy orders, w as ordained a deacon, and he took priest’s orders the following year. After serving a short time as curate at Aidborough, through the influence of this generous and distinguished friend he was introduced to the duke of Rutland and became his domestic chaplain. Nor did Burke’s kindness stop here; for he obtained for him from Lord Thurlow, in 1783, a presentation to tho rectory of FromeSt Quintin, in Dorsetshire, which he held for six years, About this time he married, and resided for some time at Swelling, county of Suffolk, officiating as curate to the minister of Great Yarmouth. About 1789 he was presented, through the instrumentality of the duchess of Rutland, to the rectories of Muston in Leicestershire and West Allington in Lincolnshire. In 1813 he was preferred to the rectory of Trowbridge, county of Wilts, which, together with the smaller living of Croxton Kerrial, in Leicestershire, he held to the time of his death. After The Village, published in 1783, which had received the corrections and commendations of Dr Johnson, Crabbe next produced The Newspaper, published in 1785. After this time his poetical labours were long suspended, owing probably to the dedication of his time to domestic affairs and the duties of his profession, or, as he himself ascribes it, to the loss of those early and distinguished friends who had given him the benefit of their criticism. He had, however, the satisfaction of seeing his next work, The Parish Register, published in 1809, read and approved by Fox. The success obtained by these poems, which far exceeded that which had attended his earlier efforts, encouraged him to write again; and in 1810 he published one of his best poems, The Borough, and in 1812 Tales in Verse. His last publication was entitled Tales of the Hall, and appeared in 1819. The latter years of his life he spent in the tranquil and amiable exercise of his domestic and clerical duties, at his rectory of Trowbridge, esteemed and admired by his parishioners, among whom he died, after a short illness, on the 8th February 1832, aged seventy-seven. He was buried in the chancel of Trowbridge Church. Crabbe’s only prose publications were a Funeral Sermon on Charles, duke of Rutland, preached at Belvoir, and an essay on the natural history of the vale of Belvoir, written for Nichols’s History of Leicestershire, in which it is thankfully acknowledged. His fame rests solely on his poems, of which The Parish Register and The Borough are destined to a reputation, if not as brilliant, yet probably as enduring as that of any other contemporary productions.
Crabbe is one of the most original of our poets; and his originality is of that best kind, which displays itself not in tumid exaggeration or flighty extravagance—not in a wide departure from the sober standard of truth—but in a more rigid and uncompromising adherence to it than inferior writers venture to attempt. He is pre-eminently the poet of reality in humble life; and to its representation he has applied himself with a rigorous fidelity which startled the timid fastidiousness of many readers. He discarded the aid of those pleasing illusions with which humble life had previously been enveloped; condemned as fictitious the prevalent representations, and in their stead fearlessly exhibited the stern, harsh, naked truth, and determined to rely for popularity on the fidelity and vigour of his delineations. His chief characteristics are force and accuracy; and through these, and the originality of his style, he compels us to bestow our attention on objects that are usually neglected. His poetry, unlike that of others, directs our sympathy where it is well for the cause of humanity that it should be directed, but whence the squalidness of misery and want too frequently repels it. Much of his success arises from his graphic delineation of external objects, but more from his knowledge of the human heart, and his powerful treatment of the passions. Both the milder and the more violent emotions are portrayed with ability, but in the latter he is most strikingly successful. Despair and remorse are exhibited with a tragic strength that has been rarely equalled; and madness has been seldom drawn with a more powerful hand than in his poem of Sir Bustace Grey. He has been called the satirist of the poor; but we must be careful lest we attach to this expression too harsh an acceptation. It is true he discountenances those romantic day-dreams which associate virtue inseparably with poverty, and an Arcadian innocence with rural life. He shows that demoralization is the attendant of distress, and that villagers may be equally dissipated, and more dishonest than the profligates of a wealthier class; but he shows this in a spirit rather of pity than of anger; and whilst he denounces and exposes crime, he makes us interested not so much in its punishment, as, what is still better, in its prevention. He spares not the vices of the poorer classes; but at the same time he does more justice to their virtues, and renders them more important objects of consideration than perhaps any other imaginative writer.
With many sterling merits as a poet, Crabbe has numerous defects. His descriptions are forcible and exact, but they are too detailed. They have too much of the minuteness of a Dutch picture; and it is a minuteness exhibited in the representation of disgusting objects. He never shrinks from the irksome task of threading the details of vice and misery. Abject depravity is a too favourite subject of his pen; and he does not seem sufficiently aware that there is a species of wickedness which counteracts our sympathy with suffering, and a degree of insignificance which extinguishes our interest in guilt. His skill in displaying the morbid anatomy of our moral nature has rendered him too prone to that unpleasing exercise of his talents; and his habit of tracing the deformities of character has given to his expositions too much the appearance of invective. His taste is very inferior to his other powers. Even with subjects naturally pleasing he is apt to blend disagreeable images. His descriptions of natural scenery, graphic as they are, have little in them of elevation. There is no genial glow about them, as if the contemplation of nature had warmed and inspired him. His deficiency of taste displays itself also sometimes in his humour, which is apt to verge upon buffoonery. His style is little to be commended. It is too often clumsy and ungraceful,—diffuse without freedom, homely without being easy, and antithetical without being pointed. His diction is frequently harsh and quaint, and compels us to feel that the merit of his works resides rather in their ideas than in the dress in which he clothes them. His lines are deficient in refinement and polish, and frequently offend the ear by something uncouth and prosaic in the sound, and the absence of musical rhythm. Such are the defects which have conduced to deprive him of that popularity - wlιich his merits would otherwise have obtained for him. (τ. h. li.)
A complete edition of Crabbe’s works was published in 1834, in 8 volumes 12mo, the first volume containing his Life by his son, the Rev. George Crabbe. A reprint, in one volume roval 8vo, was issued in 1867.
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