LONG-LEGGED SPIDER-CRAB. 5 



shore, and in deep water, and is occasionally caught in 

 the trawl-net in vast numbers. Of sixty-eight specimens 

 brought up at once, the proportion of males to females was 

 as two to one. 11 Like all the species of the family it is 

 slow, sluggish, and timid. It generally has small fuci 

 growing on it, especially on the legs ; and I have some- 

 times seen the body completely covered and concealed by 

 a mass of sponge. When taken it moves with very little 

 energy, and speedily dies after being taken out of the 

 water. Its slow and sluggish habits render it an easy prey- 

 to many fishes ; Mr. W. Thompson says, " On opening a 

 thornback, Raia clavata, about twenty inches in length, I 

 found the stomach entirely filled with Macropodia PJia- 



It deposits its spawn during the early spring months. 



L\ 



