As all the shells had gradually augmented, so was this larger than the others. The extended limbs would have occupied a circle of four inches diameter. About a month after this exuviation the animal perished accidentally, having been two years and eight months under examination. It was an interesting specimen, extremely tame and tranquil, always coming to the side of the vessel as I approached, and holding up its little claws as if supplicating food.' The shrimp when in confinement becomes very tame, and readily exuviates. The process is frequent, the integument separates entire, and is almost colourless. In female crustaceans the roe is placed outside the shell to which it adheres. During the period of such adherence, the female crab, so far as observation goes, does not change its shell--a marked provision of nature to preserve the spawn. We may remark that other classes of animals exuviate in a similar manner to the crustaceans. Thus serpents throw off in entire masses their scaly coverings, even a slough from the eyes; and various insects in their larva state are continually throwing off and renewing their skins. FOOTNOTES: [2] Report of British Association, 1851. Pp. 120-122. THE AYAH. Owing to our constant intercourse with India, there are few among us who are unacquainted with the word ayah. Some who live in London or its neighbourhood may perhaps have occasionally met with one of these sable guardian spirits, conducting one or more pale, precocious-looking little children to their British friends; or they may even have fallen in with a group of the tribe in Kensington Gardens, or other public promenades, escorting their little _babas_, and herding together, like birds of a feather, attracted by the bonds and recollections of colour, climate, caste, and language. Ayah, in the mouth of a lisping baby, is one of the prettiest words of the East, and is learned as soon as papa and mamma, being equally easy of articulation. The origin of the word is probably either Portuguese or Spanish (_aya_), although it has now become common to all classes, Christians, Mohammedans, and Hindoos alike. The Hindostanee word for nurse is _m[=a]m[)a]-jee_, or _daee_; the Bengalee, _doodoo_, or _dye_. [Transcriber's Note: Two diacritical marks are found above the letter "a" in the word "mama-jee" in the previous sentence. They are a macron diacritic, a dash-shaped symbol and a breve diacritic, a u-shaped symbol. These letters are indicated here by the coding [=a] for a macron and [)a] for a breve above the letter "a".]