Proceedings. 95 



of these animals all point forwards, and this unfortunate 

 Shrimp had backed himself into the tapering tube of an 

 annelid. Of course he got in easily enough, but his spines 

 prevented his ever getting out again ; and as he could not 

 get out through the small end he died, and so I found him a 

 monument of an unfortunate development. 



With the fresh-water Crayfish, Huxley's admirable work 

 deals most exhaustively, but, as I have caught some hundreds 

 of them, I will just refer to one or two points about them. 

 Their favourite haunts are watercourses, brooks, &c., in the 

 calcareous clay of a limestone district — such as near the 

 source of the Thames, for instance ; and the chief method of 

 catching them is by means of small circular nets stretched on 

 iron rings, and baited with liver ; but I have just heard of a 

 curious mode of catching them, which shows Astacus fluviatilis 

 to be endowed with a certain amount of intelligence, sufficient 

 in fact to prove fatal to it, and no more. My friend caught 

 fifty-three Crayfish by angling, as follows : — He baited a hook 

 with a worm, and dropped this just before a Crayfish as it 

 was walking along the bed of the stream ; it seized the line 

 with its claws and proceeded to devour the bait, and the more 

 it was pulled along the tighter the Crayfish held on, and so 

 was easily landed. 



We will now pass on to the true Crabs, and here we find a 

 large number of families with remarkably divergent habits. 

 There is one large family, the FortunidcB, embracing several 

 genera having the fifth pair of legs terminating in regular 

 paddles. These are called the Swimming Crabs, though I 

 do not think that any of them absolutely live free in the water, 

 like fishes. I believe they certainly do take short swims ; 

 and one species, Polybius Hensloivii, must indulge in rather 

 long ones occasionally, for it is frequently taken in Herring- 

 nets. The largest swimming Crab, Portumnus piiber, is a 

 gorgeous species when living, and is exceedingly delicate as 

 an article of food, surpassing even the recognised Edible Crab. 

 It is not common enough and does not grow large enough on 

 our own shores to be used as food, but in Jersey it abounds. 

 It is worthy of note that all the group, owing to their active 



