94, A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 
known name of Grapsus pictus. Professor Th. Barrois, in 
his account of the Crustacea of the Azores, speaks of this 
and two companion species as running with astonishing 
velocity among the rocks near the sea. The brilliantly 
coloured Grapsus, with its limbs of a marvellous red, he 
calls a superb species. As it occupies by preference the 
sides of the perpendicular cliffs, it is easy to believe the 
statement that prodigies of agility and cunning are re- 
quired for capturing uninjured specimens. In Charleston 
Bay Bosc had a much easier task. There he noticed that 
these crabs almost always kept themse!ves concealed under 
stones or pieces of wood, and, as these objects are rare in that 
locality, every day on the retreat of the tide he was sure 
to find fresh specimens of Grapsus under the hiding-places 
from which he had taken other specimens on the previous 
day. Darwin, in ‘A Naturalist’s Voyage,’ when speaking 
of the nests of the tern at St. Paul’s Rocks in the Atlantic, 
says, ‘It was amusing to watch how quickly a large and 
active crab (Grapsus), which inhabits the crevices of the 
rock, stole the fish from the side of the nest, as soon as we 
had disturbed the parent birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of 
the few persons who have landed here, informs me that he 
saw the crabs dragging even the young birds out of their 
nests and devouring them.’ The voracity and audacity, 
the cunning and speed and jumping powers of these crabs 
of St. Paul’s Rocks are amusingly described in the ‘ Log 
Letters of the Challenger, by Lord George Campbell, who 
however, saw no proof that they ate the young birds. 
About a dozen other genera have been formed with 
names in which Grapsus is part of the compound, as 
Geograpsus, Paragrapsus, Platygrupsus, and the like. Several 
of these contain species which were at one time included 
in the genus Grapsus, and which are by no means very 
remote from it. 
The Cancer marmoratus of Fabricius has been trans- 
ferred from Grapsus to Pachygrapsus, Randall, by Stimpson, 
and to Goniograpsus, Dana, by Miers. It is a European 
species, common among chinks of the rocks in the Adriatic. 
It prowls about on the shore by night to feed on dead 
