Miscellaneous. 77 



the Tweed ; and this establishment had been pretty frequently visited 

 by some lads, who were anxious in their cruelty to capture the dam 

 on the eggs, but she being on the watch escaped, and the four egg3 

 were seen to be all in the nest ; the lads then retired to a little di- 

 stance within sight, where they waited patiently for her returning and 

 settling quietly down again ; she did soon return, but this time ac- 

 companied by her mate, and the two birds soon after flew across the 

 river apparently fighting, as was supposed, with one another ; they 

 then, after an interval of a minute or two, returned singly to the nest, 

 and left it again in company, struggling and fighting together as be- 

 fore ; and this was repeated four different times, with the same short 

 interval between each time ; after which there was a wearisome 

 pause, the birds not again making their appearance ; when the lads 

 having given up hope of catching either of them, went to take what 

 they now supposed to be the forsaken eggs, but were astounded to 

 find the nest empty, and the eggs gone ! ! Considering it as beyond 

 a doubt that the birds had carried off their eggs, they immediately 

 crossed the river to the other side, where they had seen them dis- 

 appear ; but after a diligent search, could find no traces of them what- 

 ever ; so well did the sagacious birds appear to have hidden their 

 safely transported eggs ! The distance the birds were believed to 

 have carried their eggs could not have been less than some 70 or 80 

 yards ! Mr. Yarrell, in his well-known work on * British Birds,' when 

 describing the Skylark, alludes to the fact of two or three instances 

 being recorded of this bird's moving its eggs under fear of impending 

 danger; and he quotes from Jesse's 'Gleanings' an account of a clergy- 

 man in Sussex seeing a pair of larks rising out of a stubble-field, and 

 crossing a road before him at a slow rate, one of them attempting to 

 carry even a young bird in its claws, which however was unfortunately 

 killed by its loosing its hold when the bird was some 30 feet from 

 the ground. The instance I have just detailed of the Sandpiper is 

 the only one of any other bird, as far as I am aware, described as 

 following this extraordinary plan of removing its eggs to a place of 

 safety. Perhaps some of the naturalists among your numerous 

 readers may remember other instances of a somewhat similar kind ; 

 helping, it may be, to throw some light on this little-known, exceed- 

 ingly curious, and very interesting subject. — J. A. S. 



ACH.EUS CRANCHII. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Weymouth, June 10, 1851. 



Gentlemen, — I have the great pleasure of announcing the occur- 

 rence of the rare Achceus Cranchii, Cranch's Spider Crab of Leach 

 and Bell, as an inhabitant of the Dorsetshire coast. I dredged it on 

 the 2 7th of May last, in six fathom water, on a shingly and rocky 

 bottom with weeds in Weymouth Bay, just off Belmont and the 

 Nothe. 



The fourth and fifth pair of legs are abruptly curved, falciform, 



