Mr. C. Spence Bate on British Species of Pagurus. 23 
My friend Mr. Hamilton Whiteford informed me some time 
since that he had in his aquarium a crab of this genus, which, 
having cast its skin in confinement, he observed to gather pieces 
of weed from the surrounding rocks, and with its claws place 
them on the spines, so decorating itself that to a very great 
extent it destroyed its natural appearance. 
Some who have written on this habit have imagined this 
clothing of itself to be the result of an instinctive love of 
artificial decoration, innate in the creature. I am more inclined 
to believe that it arises from a sense of danger, and a consequent 
desire of the animal to conceal itself beneath such things as 
appear to hide and therefore protect it, than from any natural 
coxcombry inherent in the animal. 
In the typical form of Acheus Cranchii the spimes are straight 
—a circumstance that gives the animal generally a hairy appear- 
ance. In this variety the spines are all curved, and lie so close 
to the surface of the animal, that, to unassisted vision, the body 
and legs appear quite smooth ; but closer inspection shows that 
these spines are all hooked, as in the genus Pisa. Careful ob- 
servation of these two varieties of A. Cranchii fails, however, to 
detect, beyond the form of the spines, any very marked dis- 
similarity of form or structure sufficient to warrant their being 
arranged as specifically distinct. 
ANOMURA. 
Of the interesting genus of Soldier Crabs (Pagurus) six or 
~ seven species exist on the south coast of Devon, viz. :— 
Pagurus Bernhardus. Pagurus levis. 
Prideauxit. ulidianus. 
cuanensis. —— Dillwyni. 
—— Hyndmanii. 
Of the species known as Pagurus ulidianus, Mr. Bell, in his 
work on the British Crustacea, remarks “that it is extremely 
like the young of P. Bernhardus ;” and certainly, until we can 
capture a specimen carrying ova, there is every reason to believe 
that the two are but different stages in the growth of the same 
animal. 
Of Pagurus Dillwynii no specimen has hitherto been recorded 
since the one originally described in the ‘ Annals of Nat. Hist.’ 
(1851), from a specimen taken on the coast of South Wales, 
near the Worms Head, Glamorganshire. So long a period has 
elapsed, that on more than one occasion we have thought it 
prudent to have a peep at the original specimen, to assure our- 
selves that we had not committed a mistake. 
During this present summer, while on a visit at Teignmouth, 
