I'AOURIDJK. 



IAOURID.. 



166 



as wU as the Crab*, a speciee of Crawfish (fecrevi.ee), or of that sort 

 which U called (tour/to J^anniu. It u found all along the Ma, and 

 1* food to ML It hat iU turn* from being armed all orer the body, 

 exotpt at DM lower extremity, where it U naked, and where it seems 



1] Vr I" IT t^i.. r: i t therefore sheaths iUelf a* icon M it in 



in the tret tb.ll it mcete with; but to dislodge it, it U only 



: 



to plaoe it near the fire." 



_ubat mention* the Soldiers among the animal* that descend every 

 year to the sea to bathe themselves and change their skin or their 

 thrlL The old French EncydopswlU ' define* Bernard 1'Hermite to 

 be Ca*nil*t, an animal of the CrusUoeou* genus also called Soldier. 

 After a very jorticuUr description, the account proceeds thus : 

 There are in the isles of America Hermit-Crabs (Bernards 1'Hermite) 

 which are three or four inches in length. They relate that this 

 comes once a year to the edge of the sea to lay its eggs and 



^_ the) shell ; for it i* obliged to quit the shell in which it is 



lodged, btoau**, having increased in size during the year, it find* itself 

 incommoded in that shell. It therefore come* to the shore and seeks 

 a new shell which may be convenient for it. As soon as it meets with 

 one it comes out of the old one and trie* the new lodging, and, if that 

 wits, it remain* there; but it i* often obliged to enter many shells 

 before it and* one proportioned to it If it happens that two hermit- 

 crabs (top before the same shell a dispute arises, and the weakest 

 yields to the strongest" The same author states that it pinches hard 

 and doea not let po its hold easily, and that the inhabitant* eat it, 

 finding it very food, though it doe* not agree with strangers. This 

 account appear* to have been taken from 1 >u Tertre'e ' Voyage.' 



slnane thus describes the Soldier : " This small lobster or crab 

 liiff- r in very little from the European Souldjer or Hermit-Crab. It 

 bath two Urge forked claws like those of an ordinary lobster, one of 

 which is bigger than the other, both rounded, more tumid, lefts prickly, 

 and of a paler red than that of Europe, Ac. They fit themselves with 

 any shell they find empty, whether it be of the loud or sea, and cover 

 themselves almost over in it, carrying it on their backs wherever they 

 go, like a snail. It is not possible to believe how quick the land-crabs 

 and this crab will run upon the least appearance of danger. Till they 

 are turned up nothing appears bnt a dead shell, the month of which 

 lies undermost, out of which some little part of the crab appears after 

 it is taken up." (' Jamaica.') Sloane figures two of these animals 

 (apparently Ctnotila Jtioymtt) in Land-Shells (Jfeliett) ; and we saw an 

 individual of the last-named species alive in the shell of a Ildir at 

 the Gardens of the Zoological Society in Regent's Park. 



Osteeby, who figures a Omotwo Diogenet in the shell of Turlo Pica, 

 sys "They crawl very fast with their shell on their back; and at 

 the approach of danger drew themselves within the shell; and, 

 thnxting out the largrr claw in a defensive posture, will pinch very 

 hard whatever molatta them. They frequent most those parts of the sen- 

 thorn which are covered with Uves and shrubs producing various 

 wild fruite, on which they subsist, though I have seen them feed on 

 the fragments of fish and other animal substances cast on shore. 

 They being roasted in the shell are esteemed delicate. 1 do not 

 remember to have seen any of them go into the sea." (' Carolina.') 



Browne notice* the Soldier and the Common Soldier, and state* 

 that the Utter ie-very common in all the harbours of Jamaica. 



Linnstua says of the liiogna that it inhabit* the Asiatic and 

 American oceans in various Ibells of ('oflilrtr. 



rr, after mentioning univalve shells as the usual covering of 

 the gra u* Pmyunu (Kabr.), remarks that some species lodge themselves 

 in Sg-pilir, Aleymia, A*.; and we have teen individuals lodged in 

 Alryom*. Cavier alto observe* that it would even seem that some of 

 the Pmri are terrestrial. 



Kir Henry De la Heche, in a letter to Mr. Rroderip, dated August 1st 

 IMS, UTS" When 1 was in Jamaica, about three yean since, some of 

 the person* on my estate at Halse Hall brought me specimens of 

 Pyri, which they said they had obtained from a savannah, distant 

 about a quarter of a mile from the botue. This savannah is a plain : 

 formed of what I have elsewhere termed Savannah Sandstone and 

 It U very dry, and covered for the mo*t part with 

 i ebony, Lig**m Vif, the cashew-tree, and here and 

 there with'ps tones of gnat and other plants. After heavy rains the 

 suifaes of the ground Is nearly covered with herbage ; but after dry 

 w estate a considerable portion of the toil i* exposed, The savannah, 

 which it of great extent (my portion oonaUte of at least 2000 acres), 

 is hoot 30 feet above the Rio Minho, which runs round the border of 

 , MM! about 200 feet above the level of the tea, from which it is 

 nt at least 10 mile*. The tide only penetrate* just within the 

 ' the river, and rites there about 1 1 inches at the height of 

 the springs, so that then i* not even brackish water at a nearer point 

 than 10 mile*, When the Beyari were brought to mo they were alive, 

 tad I observed they were boated in marine shells, and at first thought 

 they rnnut have been brought from the see. Upon inquiry however I 

 found that tbeee animals, under the name of Soldiers, were frequently 

 taken alive for food in the savannah, to which 1 immediately proceeded. 

 On ite northern *Me, and at iU junction with the hill that rite, above 

 it. I fonnd la the little hollow, of the white limestone several of these 

 Fffuri, all in marine h-ll. and in full health and activity. I after- 

 ward* Imrot that they were by no means uncommon in uch situation* 

 n over the UUod. When I **w them there had been a good deal vf 



H, and 

 dketaat 



wet weather. They were in moist places, bnt there were no pools of 

 wter." 



Another gentleman, who resided some time in the West Indies, 

 informed Mr. Broderip that he had seen the first-mentioned species 

 (IHogenet) about his house when he lived at Port Henderson, and that 

 he had also observed them about the houses at Spanish Town, a place 

 about six miles distant from the sea, 



Payuna (Fubricius). A great resemblance exists among all the 

 Payuri, properly so called, not only in the details of their organisation, 

 but in their habita. The cephalo-thoracic portion of their body ii 

 shorter than the abdominal portion. The carapace is nearly as Urge 

 before as it is behind, and is but little or not at all prolonged laterally 

 above the base of the feet; posteriorly it U strongly notched in tin- 

 middle, and anteriorly it is either truncated or armed with a single 

 rudimentary rostrum. The basilary portion of the ocular peduncle* 

 U exposed. The internal antcnniu are placed directly above these 

 peduncles ; their first joint is convex and nearly globular ; the two 

 next are delicate and cylindrical, and only go a little beyond either the 

 peduncular portion of the external antenna), or the eyes; the terminal 

 Btemlcts of these organs are very short, and have the same form as 

 those of the Brachyurous Crustaceans. The external antenna; are 

 inserted on the same line as the ocular peduncles, and have abore a 

 stout moveable spine which represents the palp; the lost joint of their 

 peduncle ia slender and cylindrical, and they ore fixed by a multi- 

 articulate filament, which is very long. The external jaw-feet are 

 moderate in size, their stem is prdiform, and their palp very much 

 developed. The anterior feet aru in general very unequal, and one of 

 the hands very convex. The fourth pair of feet are very short, and 

 their penultimate joint, furnished above with a somewhat oval warty 

 plate, is in general very large, and prolonged above the next joint, so 

 as to constitute with it a didactylous pmcer. The fifth pair are longer, 

 more slender, more recurved upwards, present also towards the end a 

 eranulous plate, and are terminated by a more or less well-formed 

 didaotylous pincer. The abdomen is of considerable size and mem- 

 branous the plates of its dorsal surface are nearly symmetrical, but 

 very delicate, and distant from each other. Sometimes there is at the 

 base of the abdomen of the female a pair of rudimentary falsa feet, 

 and two pairs of appendages more developed in the male; but in 

 general the first segment is without any, and the second, as well as the 

 three succeeding segments, has a single one placed on the left side, and 

 fixed to the border of the dorsal plate. These appendages are nlways 

 small, and terminated by one, two, or even three ciliated lamella' upon 

 their edges, which 'in the female are of considerable dimensions, ..in I 

 serve for the insertion of the eggs. The appendages of the penulti- 

 mate ring of the abdomen are each composed of a basilary joint, which 

 is short and stout, supporting two other short and hooked pieces, one 

 of which is inserted at its inferior border, the other at its extremity 

 and each furnished with a warty plate similar to that on the posterior 

 feet These two false caudal feet have not exactly the same form, and 

 are of very unequal size, that of the right side being much smaller 

 thnn the oth.-i. (Milne-Edward".) 



Common Hermit-Crab (ratfitru* flert.mdH*\ 

 1, ont of thr h.-]l ; a, right Jnw.fnot ; 1. In the thi II. 



