582 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882.' 



birds." Nevertheless, all of the puffins taken in the Soutli Atlantic and 

 Indian Oceans — nearly a hundred — were found to be infested with the 

 cirripeds. 



Cocoanut-eating Grabs. 



It has long been known that a large terrestrial relative of the hermit- 

 crabs, known as Birgus latro, inhabiting the Philippine Islands, feeds 

 on cocoanuts, and Darwin, in his Voyage of a Naturalist (ed. 1860, p. 

 468), has recorded the observations on its attack on the husk of the 

 nut made by an English resident of Keeling Island. Mr. Guppy has 

 lately found on an uninhabited islet of the Solomon Group a species 

 sup];)osed to be the Birgus latro, and recorded his observations. He 

 found an individual about 15 inches long, which had apj)arently "not 

 only husked the shell, but also broken the hole at the eye-hole end of 

 the nut" itself: in confinement it did not actually accomplish such a 

 feat. "On one occasion the Birgus was surprised with the nut between 

 its large claws; but notwithstanding that no other food was otfered to 

 it for a day and a half, it did not attempt to. strip off the bark ; so the 

 operation was done for it, and a small hole was knocked in the top of the 

 shell." The Birgus was kept alive by Mr. Guppy for three weeks, and 

 "its appetite for cocoanuts continued unimpaired to the last day of its 

 life." It consumed about two nuts in three days, or at the rate of about 

 250 a year. "Other foods, such as bananas, were offered to it, but were 

 left untouched." 



It may be here noted that the stomachal armature of Birgus has been 

 recently described by Mr. Mocquard in the Annales des Sciences Na- 

 turelles. 



ARACHNIDS. 



General. 

 Bertkau (Pli.) Ueber das Cribellum und Calamistrum. Ein Beitrag zur Histiologie, 



Biologie und Systematik der Spinnen. Mit Abild. Arch. f. Naturgescb., 48. 



Jahrg.,pp. 316-362. 

 MacLeod (Jul. ) Recberches sur la structure et la signification de I'appareil respiratoire 



des Aracbnides. Avec fig. Bull. Acad. Sc. de Belgique, (3, ) t. 3 ; pp. 779-792. 



FAUNAS. 

 Europe. 



Cambridge (O. P.). Notes on British Spiders, with descriptions of three new species 

 and characters of a new genus. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (5), v, 9, pp. 1-13, pi. 1, 



1882. 



Australia. 



Koch (L.). Die Arachniden Australiens noch derNatur beschrieben und abgebildet. 

 Fortgesetzt von Graf E. Keyserling. 30 Lief. Niirnberg, Bauer & Raspe, 1882. 

 (4°. M. 9.). 



SPECIAL GROUPS. 



Jcariana. 

 Kramer (P.) Ueber Gamasiden. Mit 2 Taf. Archiv f. Naturgesch., 48. Jahrg, pp. 

 374- 434. 



