DECAPODA. 17'5 



preceding subgenera, and do not quite extend to the lateral extre- 

 mities of the shell. The intermediate antennae are always terminated 

 by two very distinct divisions. The inhabitants of the French 

 colonies designate them by various appellations, such as Tourlouroux, 

 Crabes-peints, Crabes de terre, and Crabes violets, Avhich may apply 

 to different species, or to varieties from age ; no observations worthy 

 of credence have as yet settled this point of nomenclature. These 

 animals more particularly inhabit intertropical countries and those 

 which adjoin them. Their habits are a constant source of interest to 

 travellers, but by abstracting from their accounts all improbable and 

 doubtful facts, their history will be as follows. The greater portion 

 of their life is passed on land, where they secrete themselves in holes, 

 from which they never issue but at night. Some inhabit cemeteries. 

 Once in the year, about the spawning season, they collect in immense 

 bands and pursue a direct course to the sea, heedless of all obstacles ; 

 after depositing their ova, they return much enfeebled. It is said 

 that they seal up the mouth of their burrow during the time they are 

 casting their shell. When this is effected, and while yet soft, they are 

 called Boursiers, and their flesh is much esteemed, although some- 

 times poisonous This quality is attributed to the fruit of the man- 

 chineel, which they are supposed, falsely perhaps, to have eaten. In 

 some of them, such as the 



UcA, Lat., 



The size of the feet, commencing with those of the second pair, 

 progressively diminishes ; they are extremely pilose, and the tarsi 

 simply sulcated without any remarkable spines or dentations. 



The only species known — Cancer uca, L., Herbst., VI, 38, 

 inhabits the marshes of Guiana and of Brazil. 

 In others, the third and fourth pair of feet are longer than the 

 second and fifth ; the tarsi are marked Avith dentated or very spinous 

 ridges. They form two subgenera. 



Cardisoma, Lat. 



The four antennae and all the joints of the external foot-jaws 

 exposed ; the three first joints of these same foot-jaws straight ; 

 the third shorter than the second, emarginated superiorly and nearly 

 cordiform; the first of the lateral antennae almost similar and broad. 



They are called Crabes blancs at the Antilles, though sometimes 

 they have a yellow shell striped with red *. 



Gecarcinus, Leach. 



The four antennae covered by the clypeus ; second and third joints 

 of the external foot-jaws, large, flattened, arcuated, and leaving a space 

 between their inner sides, the last one forming a curvilinear triangle, 

 obtuse at the summit ; it reaches to the clypeus, and covers the three 

 following ones, or the fourth, fifth, and sixth. 



* Cancer cordatus, L.; — Cancer carni/ex, Herbst., XLI, 1 IV, 37 ; — C. guan- 

 humi, Marcgrave. The tarsi have four ridges ; there are two additional ones in the 

 Gecarcini. 



