372 
Gecarcinus ruricola (?) is seldom more than 24 inches across and 
exhibits various shades of purple, crimson and orange, whence its local 
name of “redshank.” It is by far the most numerous of the Cayman 
crabs, though not often to be found far from the dry sandy land 
near the sea and very rarely if ever among mangroves. On the 
whole it is a scavenger rather than a destroyer, and if it were less 
numerous, would not be more detrimental to plant life than are 
three or four other species which seldom leave the mangroves. But 
its numbers are so great that the damage done by its burrowing is 
appreciable, as is also its destruction of seedlings. 
Fortunately it has many enemies, and of these perhaps the chief 
is Mus alexandrinus which, when living in the “ bush,” seems to 
feed principally on crabs, though it is no doubt to avoid being itself 
the food of large ones that it has become almost as arboreal as a 
squirrel, usually making its nest in some such place as the crown 
of a cocoanut palm. It shows that this habit of living in trees is a 
recently acquired one by making for the ground rather than the 
higher branches when it is hunted. 
mong the plants introduced to Grand Cayman by means of 
seeds picked up on the beach, or found floating, and subsequently 
grown in a garden Morinda citrifolia seems to be fairly established 
and, as other fruits were found at Cayman Brac 60 miles to the 
N.E, at about the same time as the original one at Grand Cayman, 
it seems likely that Cuba was its country of origin ; unless of course 
all the fruits came from some passing vessel. Fruits of Mammea 
americana are sometimes found in a more or less eatable condition, 
so this tree also may ultimately be introduced to the island “ by 
sea.” The writer has been using seaweed, mostly sargasso, but 
with some admixture of Thalassia, as manure for cocoanut trees— 
and with excellent result, some of the trees, after about a year’s 
manuring, having increased the number of young nuts in their 
bunches from 5 or 6 to more than 30, and in two instances to 48 
and 49, while the manured trees have so far escaped the diseases 
which, particularly “ bud rot,” play such havoc in thisisland. From 
this seaweed a large number of seedlings have sprung up and some, 
including Terminalia, Sesuvium, and several species of Ipomoea, 
ave gone on growing, but generally, if the crabs let them get so 
far, and it seems all but impossible to protect them from things 
which climb like cats and burrow like moles, they go off more or 
less suddenly—presumably when they have come to an end of their 
original supply of nutriment. ; 
_ So far nothing has survived which is undoubtedly new to the 
island, though a Cassia and two or three other plants not yet 
determinable may possibly prove to be so. 
It certainly seems that the appearance from sea-borne seed and 
survival of a new plant on a crab-infested island like this, which 
only offers suitable soil and surroundings to such seaside plants as 
it already has in abundance, must be a rare event—without human 
aid a very rare one indeed. 
