ANGLED CRAB. 231 



common on the Cornwall coast, together with an allied, 

 but certainly distinct, species, the G. rhomboides of the 

 Mediterranean, to be identified by its lacking a second 

 spine behind each angular one, which is well marked in 

 our species. Though essentially a southern form, it 

 occurs on the Dublin coast, and that in sufficient num- 

 ber to have obtained a popular appellation, that of 

 " Coffin-crab ;" the term " coffin" being possibly a word 

 of the Irish tongue, meaning something very different 

 from that which it suggests to our ears. 



Cranch records, as a curious habit of the species, that 

 " they live in excavations formed in the hardened mud, 

 and that their habitations, at the extremities of which 

 they live, are open at both ends." This description 

 implies a habitat above low water, if not above tide- 

 marks ; for where else could "hardened mud" be found? 

 or if it were found in the deep water, how could it come 

 under the observer's cognizance ? However, I know 

 that many marine creatures are littoral in some locali- 

 ties, which are exclusively deep-water subjects in 

 others. 



Several observant naturalists have noticed the fre- 

 quency with which the species is obtained from the 

 stomachs of the larger ground-feeding fishes, the cod 

 especially. Mr. Ball has taken four at a time from a 

 single cod in Youghal shambles. This is a well-known 



