PINNOTHERES VETEBUM. 377 



" Terrible things with terrible names ; 



Names that we all know by sight very well, 



But which no one can speak, and no one can spell." 



And first we will select the PINNOPHYLAX, or PIN- 

 NOTHERES VETERUM, as at least affording an illustra- 

 tion of the development of the bump of imaginative- 

 ness upon the skulls of natural-historians. 



The history of this pretty little creature, the PEA- 

 CRAB of our vernacular nomenclature, has from re- 

 mote antiquity been a puzzle. It seems always to be 

 found in the society of another animal, and that 

 apparently a most unlikely associate, namely the 

 Horse-mussel (Mytilus modiolus), insomuch that the 

 history of one is generally interwoven with that of 

 the other. Mr. W. Thompson observes, that on the 

 coast of Ireland he opened eighteen of these mussels, 

 and in them found no fewer than fourteen of the 

 Pinnotheres, all females ; and Mr. J. V. Thompson 

 remarks, that on any bank of old Modioli or Pinnae, 

 where these little crabs have been observed, almost 

 every shell will be found to contain at least one grown 

 female, some two, others three, independent of young 

 ones and males occupying them in common with the 

 females. Neither is this peculiarity in their history by 

 any means a modern discovery; from the remotest anti- 

 quity it has been a subject of admiration both to poets 

 and philosophers. The friendship of Damon and Py- 

 thias has not been half so celebrated as that between 

 ' ' Pinna and her Cancer friend ;" neither has any zoo- 

 logist, from Aristotle to Linnaeus, neglected to afford 

 a passing tribute of admiration to the matchless fidelity 

 of these strange lovers, the reality of which is as much 



