64 CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



white agate j whilst a brother, F. porcellana, is found in 

 Australia ; and nearer home, we obtain from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Island of Madeira the Flagusia 

 squamosa, or Goat Crab, whose whole shell is rich in 

 ornamentation, and who is by no means unlike a 

 handsomely chased snuff-box, inlaid with chinaware 

 and metal. Unlike these bits of ocean bric-a-brac 

 is Par'thenope horrida, from the reefs bordering the Isle 

 of France. This unprepossessing individual the casual 

 observer would declare without hesitation to be an 

 ungainly, rugged lump of broken white coral rock ; and 

 there are uncomfortable asperities and corners enough 

 to prevent any pedestrian, however heedless, from 

 stepping on it ; and let him just pick one up to cast at 

 some passing sea-bird, and see how quickly the stone 

 will resent the liberty, and show how he is to be 

 depended on at a pinch. Then, to step from the harsh 

 and uncompromising to the grotesque and elfish, we 

 have but to visit the genial blue w^aters of the Medi- 

 terranean, where we find about as comical a little Crab 

 as exists in all "Crabdom," wide as that ill-defined 

 dominion unquestionably is. This little gentleman is 

 known as Dromia lator, and his habits, to say the 

 least of them, are as eccentric as his personal appear- 

 ance is queer. A hairy, wiry-coated, round-bodied, 

 little crablin is he, and his delight is to go hunting and 

 foraging about amongst the coralines, medusie, and 



