UNOBTAINABLY COMMON 343 



Bathyndmus, A. Milne-Edwards, 1879, is distinguished 

 from the three preceding genera by having supple- 

 mentary ramified branchiae uniquely developed at 

 the bases of the pleopods. 



Anuropus, Beddard, 1886, unlike the four preceding 

 genera, is without eyes, and the uropods have sub- 

 membranaceous branches concealed beneath the 

 telson. 



The genus Cirolana comprehends a very large number 

 of species. That named Girolana spinipes by Bate and 

 Westwood is identified by Hansen with the earlier Girolana 

 borealis, Lilljeborg (see Plate XV.). It is a good swimmer, 

 tenacious of life, a savage devourer of fish, and not to be 

 held in the human hand with impunity. Another British 

 species, Cirolana Cranchii, Leach, distinguished from the 

 preceding by the much less spinose limbs, resembles it in 

 abundance. Upon one occasion at Anstis Cove, near Torquay, 

 a fishing-boat drawn up on the beach was swarming with 

 it. As the boatman had often promised to preserve any 

 small marine curiosities met with in his fishing, his at- 

 tention was called to these creatures crawling in such num- 

 bers over his boat. When asked why he had never brought 

 any of the kind to the naturalist, his reply was that they 

 were so common that he could not imagine any one want- 

 ing them. It is in this way that the efforts of the lands- 

 man are repeatedly baffled, unless he can fish for himself 

 in sheltered inlets or has his breast and interior constructed 

 of oak and triple bronze to qualify him for dredging in the 

 open. The American Cirolana concharwn (Stimpsou) feeds 

 sweetly 011 the common edible crab, otherwise called the 

 'blue-crab,' of the United States. From a single- crab 

 as many as a hundred and eight specimens of the Cirolana 

 have been taken. 



Conilera thus far is limited to a single species, Conilera 

 cylindracea (Montagu), known from various parts of Great 

 Britain, including the Channel Islands, and from the 

 Mediterranean. Its piratical behaviour is discussed by 

 Dr. F. Day in his remarks upon a specimen of a Dog-fish, 



