30 BVliMA, ITS PEOPLE ASD PRODUCTIONS. 



TnELrnusA Edwahdsi, "Wood-Mason. Kliakyen Hills. Hutlia. 



,, AxDEU-soNiAXA, Wood-Mason. Khakycn Hills, iloniien, 3500-5000. 



,, HispiDA, Wood-Mason. Kbakyeu Hills. Pousee. 



,, TUMID A, Wood-Muson. Khakyen Hills. Hutba. 



* ,, Atkixsoniana, Wood-Mason. Arakuu. 



Pahateelpitcsa Dayaxa, Wood-Mason. Piome. Mandalay. 



„ CKENULIFEBA. , 



„ SINENSIS. 



Family Ocypodidse. 



Dr. ilasou fjives ^Ocypoda ceraluphthalma, as found on the coast, apparently on 

 Mr. Blytli's authority, hut the .species is not included in Mr. Wood-Mason's list. 

 Either this, or an allied species, is one of the most striking objects seen, when strolling 

 by moonlight on a firm sandy beach, though they are by no means solely nocturnal 

 animals. These crabs are of a bright-red colour, with eyes supported on peduncu- 

 lute<l porcellaneous cylinders. As the intruder approaches over the sands, the 

 assemblage of these animals opens out to allow him to pass, or if his movements are 

 suspicious, they betake themselves, each to the immediate entrance to his own hole 

 in the firm sand, and if their alarm is raised, the whole of them will disappear as if 

 by magic, leaving a clear beach, where scores of active crabs were the previous 

 instant seen moving about. When watched from a distance,, however, the motions of 

 these ci'abs are very interesting, as the whole body wheels this way and that, some- 

 what like troops manoeuvring at a review. 



Tbe following interesting remarks are from the pen of the Rev. C. Parish, and 

 are contained in " Science-Gossip," No. 92, of 1872. It would seem to matter little 

 to the crab whether he burrows in stiff clay or loose sand, both which substances 

 he equally contrives to mould into pellets or balls when excavating his l)urrow on 

 the beach : — " As I was walking with a friend, some ten years ago, along the sandy 

 shore of the Teuassorim coast, I was suiijrised to sec in one place a large number 

 of apparently rollcnl pebbles or stones extending along the beach for some distance, 

 just above high-water mark. The reason for ray surprise was that such a thing as 

 a pebbly beach is nowhere met with (as far as my experience goes) on this coast. 

 The entire coast-line of Tenasscrim, from Amherst on the north to the Packohan 

 Eiver on the south, consists of alternating bold granite bluffs, which jut out into the 

 sea, and semicircular sandy bays, with here and there an extensive mud-flat and 

 mangrove swamp at the mouths of creeks and livers. It is very hard to find a 

 stone anywhere on any of the sandy beaches. Granite boulders of various sizes are 

 frcciuently met with on the sand, but that is all. The very unusual appearance, 

 therefore, of a number of stones, resembling shinglo, collected together in one place, 

 surjH'iscd me. After my companion and I had amused ourselves with throwing about 

 some of these stones, which were so hard as to have required a hammer to break 

 them, we found that others (those nearest to the sea) were soft — of a firm cheesy 

 consistency — so that the end of a walking-stick could be forced into or through them. 

 This naturally increased our surprise ; we therefore set oiu'sclves to discover, if 

 possible, the cause of this strange phenomenon. We were not long in doing this. 

 The actual process of manufacture was witnessed. It may be stated here that the 

 part of the coast spoken of is not far from the mouth of the Tavoy River, which 

 expands into a broad estuaiy several miles across. This river carries down towards 

 the sea a vast quantity of mud, the greater part of which is distributed along the 

 coast-bottom to the south, owing to the direction of the river, which flows from 

 north to south, the run of the coast-line being the same. At Mergui, also, only 

 sixty miles to the south, another large river, the Tenassei'im, pours down its quota 

 of mud, and this also is confined near the coast by the islands of the Mergui 

 Arcliipclago, which streti'h from near the mouth of the Tavoy liiver on the north, 

 to near Juuk-Selung on the south. I have dredged the bottom at intervals betwec^n 

 Tavoy and Mergui, and found it to be mud the whole way inside the islands. 

 The consequence of this is, that altliough some of the reaches of sand on this 

 part of the coast are very fine, the sand is, nevertheless, comparatively shallow, and 



