280 Mr. W. Thompson on the Crustacea of Ireland. 



shores I have remarked this species to be about equally common. 

 Mr. R. Ball states that it inhabits holes in the hard mud, but whe- 

 ther made by itself he cannot say. The Gonoplax bispinosa is said 

 by Mr. Cranch " to live in excavations formed in the hardened mud, 

 and that their habitations, at the extremities of which they live, are 

 open at each end." Leach, Mai. Pod. Brit. In the ordinary rejecta- 

 menta of the tide it occurs much more frequently than any other 

 species, and generally in a young state. The carapace of the largest 

 example in my collection, from Belfast bay, is 3 J inches in breadth 

 and 2 J in length. Pennant and Leach state that this crab is sent in 

 quantities to London, where it is eaten by the poor ; and M. Ed- 

 wards observes that it is used in like manner in Paris. In other 

 large towns also I have remarked it on sale, but in Belfast, the Cancer 

 pagurus, as has been already remarked, is the only species of crab 

 used as an article of food. The Carcinus mcenas is much in request 

 by juvenile anglers and fishermen for bait. I have seen it so used by 

 persons fishing for flounders {Platessa fiesus) in the river Bann, near 

 Portstewart : by Dr. J. L. Drummond I am informed that its liver is 

 the chief bait used by boys at Lame in fishing for the young of the 

 Merlangus carbonarius, called there pickock ; Mr. R. Ball states that 

 when these crabs are about to change their shells or have recently 

 done so, they are sought for under the sea-weeds at low-tide by the 

 fishermen at Youghal, chiefly as bait for flat-fish, and are superior to 

 anything that can be used — in this soft state they are here called pil- 

 crabs (qu. peeled-crabs). At the quays of Youghal, these crabs are 

 caught in great numbers simply with fish-entrails tied to a string. 

 They prove such an annoyance to boys fishing at Belfast quay by 

 consuming their bait, that all of them caught in the act are instantly 

 trampled to death, and hence may have arisen the proverb of " crab's 

 allowance." Mr. Ball was once witness to the body of a person 

 drowned when bathing at Youghal, being taken out of the water 

 an hour and a half after his disappearance, when several of these 

 crabs were engaged eating the eyes of the corpse. 



M. Edwards remarks that the name of •' Crabes enrages" is 

 applied to this species on the coast of Normandy ; and it is suffi- 

 ciently appropriate, for when arrested in their rapid progress over 

 the beach, and well (as remarked by that author) they can run, they 

 instantly throw up their claws in anger to attack the intruder, and if 

 not guarded against, will give him feeling evidence of their displea- 

 sure. M. Edwards too observes, that they have been kept alive for 

 a long time out of the water, but he would perhaps hardly be pre- 

 pared to expect that they are so tenacious of life, as shown in the 

 following instance, communicated by Mr. R. Patterson : — " I re- 

 member above twenty years ago spending one of my school vaca- 

 tions at Holywood, Belfast bay, and on one occasion was so an- 

 noyed by the common crabs (C. mcenas) eating the bait from my fish- 

 ing hook, that at length I took a number of the crabs and by way of 

 retaliation buried them alive in the garden. Some time after, but 

 how long I cannot now remember, I was tempted to dig them up to 



