372 THE GENUS CALLINECTES—M. J. RATHBUN. vol. xviii. 



mating they are daring and predatory, soon regaining the strength and 

 flesh they have lost. 



Now each crab has a favorite retreat, from which he does not wander 

 far. When chased, he returns to it. He has a reguhir beat, and he 

 patrols it at short intervals day and night, except when gorged with 

 food. If he hnds a small bit, he will eat it immediately. If more than he 

 wants at the moment, he will try to drag it to his sheltered nook under 

 a log or rock. If he can not carry it, he will eat to repletion and then try 

 to bury it, and will remain in the neighborhood. If food is discovered 

 within the territory of one, others will cross the boundary, and I have 

 seen lively fights. But as soon as the visitor gorges himself, he seems 

 disinclined to active exertion and only "covers what he stands on," 

 while another drives oft" the crowd and eats. I have often dropped in 

 a dead fish and watched this performance. From what I have seen, I 

 judge that the sense of smell is well developed in CalUnectes scqndus. 

 I have covered the fish, but it was soon found, and other crabs came 

 from a distance. Undoubtedly they have keen sight, but they seem to 

 depend more on their sense of smell. In the spring, when the male and 

 female are together, there seems to be much community of feeling 

 between the two. They hunt in couples ; they do not strnggle with 

 each other for food, but share it, and I have many times seen the two 

 combine to drive oft" a stranger. Later, however, they treat each other 

 as strangers, and after April I have seen the two ''x)artners" fight. 



They retire to deeper water in winter. We see them return to their 

 summer haunts every warm day. They do not seek the deepest water, 

 but find shelter where the water is about 4 or 5 feet deep. They do not 

 roam about at night-time till the water is quite warm. During Decem- 

 ber, January, February and March they must eat very little, yet they 

 come out strong and active. Therefore, I think they "half- hibernate" 

 (if I may use the expression) as the bears do in this State. 



In 1890 I saw fully 500 sea bass in Lake George, through which the 

 !St. Johns River runs, which had died from the attack of a fungus- 

 looking parasite. I found two crabs with the same disease. Both died. 



1 saw many other crabs in the same waters apparently entirely free 

 from any sickuess. 



I have seen the common leech on joints of the crab,^ but never satis- 

 fied myself it was anything but a i)assenger. So of a red worm about 



2 inches long. I was not sure in either case that the crab was attacked. 

 N^otes hij Willard Nye, jr. — The largest and oldest of our common 



blue-claw crabs I have generally found in some small pool in a marsh 

 where the tide refreshed the water at each rise. Here, selecting a 

 place under some rock or sunken drift log, the crab takes life in a 

 most easy way, as with each tide the small fish swarm into the pool 



'The Myzobdella lugnbris Is a small leech, which lives on the "edible crab" {Cal- 

 Iwectes liasfatus), adhering to the soft niem'braue between the joints and at the base 

 of the legs. (Verrill, Vineyard Sound Report, p. 458.) 



