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485 



PACHYPTILA ; or WHALE BIRD. A 

 genus of web-footed birds, allied to the 

 Petrels, but distinguished from them by 

 having the nostrils separate, and the beak 

 widened at the base, the edges of it furnished 

 in the inside with fine, pointed, vertical 

 laminae. There are two species ot this genus, 

 which occur frequently in the seas of the 

 Southern hemisphere. They are often called 

 Blue Petrels, from their ashy-gray colour 

 above, while the under parts are white. 

 The Pachyptila vittata is very numerous in 

 certain parts. Capt. George Grey tells us 

 that " their flight much resembles that of a 

 snipe. The name by which they are known 

 to the sailors is the Whale Bird : they 

 appear to take their food upon the wing ; 

 for I have never seen them sit upon the 

 water even for a single second, although 

 I have observed them frequently and at all 

 hours ; but night and day they hurry on 

 with the same restless, rapid flight, some- 

 times going in large flocks. I never heard 

 them utter any cry or sound." 



PAGTJRUS : PAGURID^E. A genus and 

 family of anomourous Crustacea ; called also 

 Soldier and Hermit Crabs. They are very 

 peculiar as to both their conformation and 

 their habits. The tail, or post abdomen, is 

 of large size, but its envelope is little else 

 than a membranous bag, entirely destitute 

 of the usual hardness of the Crustaceous in- 

 tegument, and presenting no division into 

 segments. The thorax itself is not very 

 firm ; and it is only on the claws, which are 

 of large size, that we find the true calcareous 

 envelope. For the protection of their soft 

 tails, the PaguridcK resort to various artificial 

 methods. Many of them seek univalve 

 shells, in which they take up their abodes ; 

 attaching themselves to their interior by a 

 sucker with which the tail is furnished at 

 its extremity, and also holding by its six 

 false legs which it bears at its hinder por- 

 tion. When they are feeding or walking, 

 the head and thorax project beyond the 

 mouth of the shell ; but when they are 

 alarmed they draw themselves in, closing 

 the mouth with one of the claws, which is 

 much larger than the other, and holdi 

 the interior so firmly, that they will ra 

 be torn asunder than quit their attachment. 

 As they increase in size, they are obliged to 

 change their habitation for a more commo- 

 dious one ; and the way in which they ac- 

 complish this is very amusing. They may 

 be frequently observed crawling slowly along 

 the line of empty shells, &c., left by the last 

 wave ; and as if unwilling to part with their 

 old domicile till a new one has been obtained, 

 thf 7 slip their tails out of the old house into 

 the new one, again betaking themselves to 

 the former, if the latter is not found suitable. 

 In this manner they not unfrequently try 

 a large number of shells before they find one 

 to their liking. If it happens that two 

 hermit-crabs stop before the same shell, a 

 dispute arises, and the weakest yields to the 

 strongest. There are several species of va- 

 rious sizes, some of which may be found on 

 our own coasts, but the greater part belong 



feed upon dead fish, but it does not appear 

 that they are very nice in their food, as all 

 kinds of garbage that may be thrown on 

 the shore are devoured by them. 



Sloane, in describing the species which is 

 most common in Jamaica, thus writes: 

 " This small lobster or crab differs in very 

 little from the European soldier or hermit- 

 crab. It hath two large forked claws like 

 those of an ordinary lobster, one of which 

 is bigger than the other, both rounded, more 

 tumid, less prickly, and of a paler red than 

 that of Europe. They fit themselves with 

 any shell they find empty, whether it be 

 of the land or sea, and cover themselves al- 

 most 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 ap- 

 pearance of danger. Till they are turned 

 up, nothing appears but a dead shell, the 

 mouth of which lies undermost, out of which 

 some little part of the crab appears after it 

 is taken up." The species we have figured 

 as an example is the Cenobita Diogenes, which 

 is thus described by Catesby : " They crawl 

 very fast with their shell on their back ; and 

 at the approach of danger draw themselves 

 within the shell ; and thrusting out the 



(OENOBITA DIOOENES.) 



larger claw in a defensive posture, will pinch 

 , very hard whatever molests them. They 

 n ?. frequent most those parts of the sea-shores 

 __! which are covered with trees and shrub, 

 producing various wild fruits on which they 

 subsist ; though I have seen them feed on 

 the fragments of fish and other animal sub- 

 stances cast on shore. They being roasted 

 in the shell are esteemed delicate." A great 

 resemblance exists among all the 1'ayuri, 

 not only in their organization, but in their 

 habits ; and the species are very numerous. 



PAL^OTHERIUM. A genus of extinct 

 Pachydermatous animals, discovered ( in 

 company with Anoplotherium) in the gyp- 

 sum beds of Paris ; and of which discovery 

 Cuvier thus speaks. "I found myself, as if 

 placed in a charnel-house, surrounded by 

 mutilated fragments of many hundred ske- 

 letons of more than twenty kinds of animals 

 piled confusedly around me; the task as- 

 signed to me was to restore them all to their 

 original position. At the voice of Compa- 



to tropical shores. For the most part they | rative Anatomy, every bone and fragment 



