xlvi JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



vast numbers, entering the houses. The weather being sultry on 

 one occasion they found their way into the chamber of the writer, 

 and attacked a dry goat-skin (used as a covering for a portmanteau). 

 They are caught by boys, who dispose of them at Spanish Town at 

 about one shilling per dozen ; they are fine eating, but decidedly in- 

 ferior to the black crabs. They are in general night feeders, when 

 the dew is on the ground, so that they are generally caught at night, 

 by a man called the Crab-catcher in the different estates, who being 

 well acquainted with their haunts, stops up their holes, and thus 

 cuts off their retreats. When alarmed they move off briskly, but 

 when overtaken stop and hold up their claws in a threatening posi- 

 tion. Hogs are fond of them, and kill them by putting one of their 

 feet upon the crab, and breaking the claws with their teeth ; some- 

 times, however, the crab is too quick, and seizes the hog by the 

 nose. The crabs periodically cast their shells, and in the soft state 

 are called leather-jackets, and being at that time very fat, and the 

 whole mass eatable, are especially prized. The writer then notices 

 the provision made for the construction of the new shells from the 

 two masses of carbonate of lime found on each side of the stomach, 

 immediately before each moulting ; and concludes by observing that 

 so numerous were the crab-holes in the ground close to the Rectory 

 of the parish where he resided in Jamaica, that he once punningly told 

 the clergyman that no stranger could approach his residence without 

 being soon made sensible that he was treading upon holy ground. 



2. Elater noctilucus, or fire-fly, as it is commonly termed by the 

 natives, is very abundant in Jamaica, except in mountainous situa- 

 tions, where the cold is not congenial to it or the musquito. Its 

 flight in the piazzas of the houses as soon as the evening closes in 

 is described, and the light is described as being of a fiery orange 

 colour, differing much from the mild blue silvery light of the glow- 

 worm. They are occasionally made use of by the inhabitants as a 

 substitute for lamps in the chambers, a few being confined together ; 

 and it is stated that a lady, previous to her passage to England, 

 placed a number of these insects in a wide-mouthed phial with some 

 rotten wood, covering the mouth with gauze, and which served as a 

 substitute for a lamp on board, by shaking the phial and disturbing 

 the insects, which immediately sent forth an abundant light ; they 

 however perished when the ship arrived in northern and colder lati- 

 tudes. The author opposes the statement of M. Laporte, (Ann, Soc. 

 Ent. France, 1833, p. 123,) that the splendidly luminous spectacle 

 exhibited in tropical countries by fire-flies is caused by Lamjjyridce 

 as well as Elaterida, asserting that in Jamaica the appearance is 

 produced exclusively by the latter, the light of the glovirworm which 



