374 EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 



The following was the meterological report from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15: — 



Barom Highest, Aug. 7 30.385 



Lowest, Aug. 2 29.666 



Therm. — Highest, Aug. 14 85°, Fahr. 



Lowest, Aug.4 42°. Fahr. 



Total amount of rain, 0.85 inch. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 



ZOOLOGY. 



1. On the genus Pagurus, by Db. Milne Edwards. — The singular Crus- 

 tacea which, to protect their soft and trailing abdomen, dwell in the interior of 

 various turbinated shells, and carry them about everywhere with them, have long 

 excited the curiosity of naturalists. They did not escape the notice of the an- 

 cients, and one of the first anatomists who paid attention to the internal struc- 

 ture of the inferior animals, Swammerdam, has studied their organisation. Au- 

 thors appear, however, to have long confounded the different animals which pre- 

 sent these different characters ; but since the close of the last century they have 

 examined them with more care, and have discovered that a considerable number 

 belong to distinct species. Fabricius, who separates them from the Crabs un- 

 der the generic name Pagurus, enumerates fifteen, and since then almost every 

 travelling naturalist has added to the number. Hence this group is one of the 

 most numerous in the class Crustacea, and, for want of being studied sufficiently 

 in a comparative point of view, it has become, at the same time, one of the most 

 difficult as regards the determination of species. This circumstance has induced 

 Dr. Milne Edwards to undertake the revision of the genus, and he has obtained 

 abundant materials for his task. 



The genus Pagurus of Fabricius, like most other generic groups of this great 

 entomologist, has been sub-divided by more recent authors ; but it was so na- 

 tural that the limits of the group still remain the same ; only instead of being a 

 genus it has been elevated to the rank of a tribe. 



The author of the beautiful work On the Crustacea of Great Britain* Dr < 

 Leach, who lately died in Italy, and who had long been lost to science, first 

 separated from the true Paguri the Cancer latro, of which Rumph has given a 

 good figure ; he established for it the genus Birgus. More recently Latreille, 



* We are not aware whether this is its exact title, which we have at present no means of as- 

 certaining. — Ed. 



