LANDAU, a t. and fortress of Bavaria, in the district of Rhenish Pfalz, is situated in a beautiful region on the Queich, which fills its fosse with water, 20 ni. n.w. of Calls rube. There are here important manufactures of tobacco. The pop. in 1875 was 7,579. Landau has been the scene of important events during every great war since the 15th century. In the thirty years' war, it was taken eight times by Swedes, Spaniards, Imperialists, and French. In 1684 it was fortified by Vauban, and was considered impregnable until taken, in 1702, by the imperialists under the markgraf Ludwig of Baden.
the popular name of all those species of crab (q.v.) which in a mature state are not aquatic. They are now erected into a family or tribe, and divided into several genera. The species are numerous, and all inhabitants of warm countries. They very much resemble the common crabs of our shores, and are remarkable as animals breathing by gills, and yet not aquatic, some of them inhabiting very dry places, where they burrow in the sand or earth; but such presence of moisture is absolutely necessary to them as to prevent the desiccation of their gills. 3Iany, and probably all of them, deposit their spawn in water, for which purpose some of them annually migrate from considerable distances to the sea; but there is reason to suppose that some deposit their spawn in fresh water. Tile BLACK CRAB. or MOUNTAIN CRAB (gecarcinvs ruricola), of
the West Indies, usually resides in woods and on hills at a distance of at least one mile, often two or three miles from the sea, which, however, it regularly visits in the months of April and May, when immense numbers may be seen journeying together, moving straight on, unless obstacles quite insuperable impede their progress. Like most of the other species, this land-crab is active chiefly during the night; and except in rainy weather, it seldom leaves its burrow by day. It feeds chiefly on vegetable food. When in season, it is highly esteemed for the table, as some of the other land-crabs also are; and its spawn or roc, which before being deposited forms a bunch as large as a lien's egg, is accounted a delicacy,A land-crab of Ceylon (ocypode) is so troublesome on account of the burrows which it makes in the dry soil of the equestrian promenade at Colombo, that men are kept in regular employment to fill them up.—The grass-lands of some parts of India swarm with small land-crabs, which feed on the grass or on green stalks of rice.