MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 285 



grotesque member looked for all the world like the 

 head and mandibles of a Macaw, only the free chelae 

 was not quite so much curved. 



The Common Shore Crab has a habit of hiding in 

 hollows in the " ronds " that still border Breydon in 

 places, when the tide has receded from the flats. 

 Those unable to scuttle into hiding, and left on the 

 flats, creep under the matted Zostera marina, and 

 there remain until the tide returns; others sink 

 themselves into the soft ooze which finds its level 

 immediately above them. Those in the hollows of 

 the ronds holes scooped out by the constant lave 

 of the water lie piled upon each other in heaps, 

 sometimes hundreds thick ; here they remain 

 mutually agreed upon a toleration and good be- 

 haviour that far from characterise them when the 

 flood - tide again sets them at liberty, to scuttle 

 in search of food or fight, as the case may be. 

 I first discovered these monster gatherings when, 

 in cutting a rond-edge vertically, so as to face it 

 with wood, to form a kind of quayside for my 

 houseboat, the spade sliced through quite a peck 

 of them. 



I have had many a bit of fun with the Shore Crabs 

 that haunt the "corner" of Breydon where my 



