254 THE STALK- EYKD CRUSTACEA. 



happened upon a specimen and offered a reward to a fisherman of 

 a shilhng each for others. To my astonishment (and dismay !) he 

 brought me in a few days over a hundred specimens, and informed 

 me that when he visited his Crab-pots at about two o'clock in 

 the morning, there was a certain sand- bank which swarmed with 

 this httle crab, at that hour, but he had never seen it elsewhere 

 or at any other time. 



The Spiny Lobster {Paliimrns guadricornis), is the true 

 Cray-fish, and often attains to a great size. 1 once measured a 

 specimen which I saw taken in Sark. It was four feet two 

 inches in extreme length, and eleven inches in spread of tail. 

 This species carries an enormous mass of ova of very small size 

 in proportion to the parent. Whilst species of much less di- 

 mensions, such as CaUianassa siihtervanea, produces quite large 

 ova, but very few in number. As, however, the latter species 

 is greatly protected by living underneath the sand, such disparity 

 is accounted for. 



The Fresh- water Cray-fish or Craw-fish {Astacus fiuviatilis), 

 is found in abundance in brooks deeply cut through the 

 clay meadows of a lime-stone district. Its real home in this 

 country is Cricklade, in Wiltshire, where I have caught 

 thousands of them. \T\\e Cray-fish used to be common, and 

 probably is so still, in the Lea and Chelmer, and is found in 

 some of the streams of the New River Company in prodigious 

 abundance. — Ed.] 1 have kept this interesting species alive 

 for some time in a basket of stinging nettles. In an ordinary 

 aquarium it soon dies, unless the water be very shallow. 



The Common Lobster is so well-known excepting perhaps 

 under its scientific name of Homavns vulgavis, that any details are 

 unnecessary. It is very widely distributed, and although con- 

 sidered a delicacy, is unhappily not too discriminate as to its own 

 feeding. Albino specimens sometimes occur, and I once had one 

 alive for some time, which was of a pale flesh-tinted pink. 



Nephvops novvegiciis is a typical Dogger-Bank form of very 

 marked characteristics. It is called a "Prawn" in Newcastle. 

 I have frequently taken them from the stomachs of Cod-fish. 



The Boring Crustaceans, Thalassinadae, are a remarkable 

 family, seldom seen, and never obtained except by digging 

 in low-tide sand-banks. CaUianassa snhtevranea. Gehia deltura, G. 

 stellata and Axius stirhynchns are the chief forms. Another boring 



