PREFACE. 



In the following little "Work there are brief descriptions 

 of upwards of four hundred species of Crustacea, found in 

 and around the British Islands. The dredgings of Messrs. 

 Couch, M'Andrew, the Thompsons, Gosse, Spence Bate, 

 and others, have shown that Colonel Montagu and Dr. 

 Leach, with their correspondents, had only opened the rich 

 field of this branch of Marine Zoology, while Dr. Baird, by 

 his gatherings and discoveries among our fresh waters, has 

 nobly occupied ground which, in this country at least, had 

 been all but neglected before his time. The admirable 

 work of Professor Bell, on the ' British Stalk-eyed Crus- 

 tacea/ contained many species, and at least one remarkable 

 genus, previously undescribed; while the publication of that 



