CHAPTER SEVEN 



Hyas: A Monograph of the Spider-Crab 



HE title of this paper could with 

 | almost equal appropriateness be 

 [substituted with the single word 

 'Jim." This was the name of the 

 jspider-crab who, more than any 

 other individual of his species (Hyas coarctatus) , 

 helped me to make such modest discoveries as I 

 shall have occasion to describe in this history of 

 his kind. 



We called him "Jim" from the start. He, with 

 other recent spider-crabs, had not been long in my 

 largest tank when my children, apprised by his 

 superior endowments, marked him by name from 

 all the rest. Although young — a silver quarter 

 would cover his carapace — he was a good fighter, 

 a most excellent thief; with charming adroitness, 

 he could filch a portion of another's ornamental 

 property or snatch away its food, with equal 



f227] 



