USE OF TflE ANTENNA. 129 1 



taken specimens in which the vraisemllance was so per- 

 fect as to strike me, and others to whom I showed it, 

 with amazement. Now Pennant, as is well known, had 

 strong sympathies with his British ancestry; and per- 

 haps, by a not extravagant stretch of imagination, his 

 playful fancy saw the features of the grand old 

 Celtic warrior perpetuated on this Crab, which he 

 first met with, too, be it remembered, on the Welsh 

 coast. 



Mr. Couch, in his Cornish Fauna, notices the unusual 

 length of the antennae. " These organs," he says, " are 

 of some use beyond their common office of feelers ; per- 

 haps, as in some other crustaceans, they assist in the 

 process of excavation; and, when soiled by labour, I 

 have seen the Crab effect their cleaning by alternately 

 bending the joints of their stalks, which stand conve- 

 niently angular for this purpose. Each of the long 

 antennae is thus drawn along the brush that fringes the 

 internal face of the other, until both are cleared of every 

 particle that adhered to them." This suggested use of 

 the antennae does not seem to me to be a very felicitous 

 guess of the excellent Cornish naturalist : I should 

 fancy them to be somewhat inefficient instruments in 

 excavation : perhaps I can help him to a better. I 

 have observed that, when these Crabs are kept in 

 an aquarium, they are fond of sitting bolt upright, 





