MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 281 



length, and the other had the fixed end curved 

 the wrong way, after the manner of the beak of the 

 Avocet. Two teeth-like processes, however, met the 

 free chelae in the latter example, so that it was quite 

 capable of strongly seizing any object. 



CRAB NOTES 



In January and February there appears to be an 

 inshoring of Spider Crabs. The species known as 

 Hyas coarctatus is in this colder part of the year 

 frequently thrown ashore by the waves, where, 

 feebly struggling, it falls an easy prey to the Hooded 

 Crows, or is flung among the flotsam at the tide- 

 mark, to be presently covered by the drift sand. It 

 is usually found in a soft state, the old jacket having 

 been but recently cast. The frost very soon puts an 

 end to its forceless squirming. 



On 1st October 1891 a very fine Edible Crab, 

 measuring 7J inches across the carapace and scaling 

 1 Ibs., seized a mussel used as bait by an angler 

 from one of the piers, who secured it, the animal 

 having made its escape less possible by entangling 

 the line about its claws. This, like occasional speci- 

 mens taken in the shrimp-nets, had been swept south- 



