Mr. Broderip on the Habits of Paguri. 207 



" dans des serpules, des alcyons, etc. II parait meme qu*il y en a de 

 " terrestres." 

 Lamarck is silent as to the habits of the Paguri. 

 Passing over Herbst, Fabricius, Olivier, Latreille, Leach, Dumeril, 

 Brisson, Bosc, Risso, and other authors, whose labours have been princi- 

 pally confined to classification, we come to the able and interesting work of 

 M. Desmarest,* who says of the Paguri,f " Qrdinairement on les rencontre 

 " sur les plages, a pen de profondeur, et on les voit se trainer sur le fond 

 *' a I'aide de leur serres et des autres pattes libres. Leur demarche, 

 " comme on le juge bien, est lente et irreguliere. lis vivent comme les 

 " autres crustaces, de petits animaux de la meme classe, ou de mollus- 

 " ques, qui passent a la portee de leurs pinces et qu'ils parviennent k 

 " saisir. Les Naturalistes font mention de plusieurs especes de pagures 

 *' qui vivent a terre, a une assez grande distance du rivage, et qui se lo- 

 " gent dans des trous, II est vraisemblable que ces animaux doivent 

 " rentrer dans le genre suivant, qui comprend un pagure egalement ter- 

 " restre." J This account of their slow moving powers does not agree 

 with the rapidity of motion attributed by eye-witnesses (Sloane and others) 

 to the Pagurus Diogenes. 



In pursuing my enquiries upon this subject I have been struck by two 

 beautiful provisions in the animal oeconomy of these Paguri. Their 

 backs are towards the arch of the shell, and their well armed nippers and 

 first two pair offset generally project beyond the mouth of it. Their two 

 short pair of feet rest upon the polished surface of the columella, and the 

 outer surface of their termination, especially that of the first pair, is most 

 admirably rough-shod to give " the soldier" a firm footing when he makes 

 his sortie, or to add to the resistance of the crustaceous holders at the end 

 of his tail when he is attacked, and wishes to withdraw into his castle. On 

 passing the finger downwards over the termination of these feet they feel 

 smooth; but if the finger be passed upwards the roughness is instantly per- 

 ceived. The same sort of structure {it is as rough as a file) is to be seen in 

 the two smaller caudal holders. The second provision I observed in a very 

 fine and large species of Pagurus from the Mauritius {Pagurus guttatus 



* Considerations generales sur la classe des Crustaces. Paris 1825. 

 t P. 177; I Birguslatro. 



