774 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



account of the difficulty of procuring them. By those who have eaten them they are considered 

 decidedly superior to the Blue Crab in flavor. 



THE GREEN CRAB CARCINTTS M^ENAS, Leach. 



This Crab, which is one of the most common species on the coast of Great Britain, also 

 abounds upon our Atlantic coast, from Cape Cod to New Jersey and perhaps farther south. It is 

 very abundant in Vineyard Sound, Buzzard's Bay, and Long Island Sound. The body is of a 

 bright-green color, varied with spots and blotches of yellow, making it very conspicuous; adult 

 specimens measure about two inches in width and one and a half inches in length. The surfaces 

 of the carapax and limbs are more or less granulated. 



" The Green Crab, Carcinus manas, occurs quite frequently well up toward high-water mark, 

 hiding under the loose stones, and nimbly running away when disturbed. It may also be found, 

 at times, in the larger tidal pools. It often resorts to the holes and cavernous places under the 

 peaty banks of the shores, or along the small ditches and streams cutting through the peaty 

 marshes near the shore." l 



It is most abundant between tide-marks, or near low-water mark, and is seldom found below 

 a very few fathoms in depth. 



The Green Crab is an article of food in some parts of Europe, where it occurs abundantly. In 

 England it is occasionally used as bait, especially while in a soft-shell state. It is said to be often 

 very annoying to the salmon fishermen in that country. " Trout and mackerel are reduced to 

 skeletons in a very short time, and grilse and salmon often rendered unfit for market by an 

 unseemly scar, the work of these marauders." 2 



In this country, the Green Crab is frequently used as bait on the Southern New England 

 coast, especially for the tautog. In Vineyard Sound and Buzzard's Bay it is known to the 

 fishermen as the " Joe Rocker." 



THE LADY CRAB PLATYONICHUS OCELLATUS, Latreille. 



The "Lady Crab," or " Sand Crab," is abundant on nearly all our sandy shores from Cape Cod 

 to Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico ; it ranges from low-water mark to a depth of ten fathoms. 

 This species is easily distinguished from all our other Crabs by the shape and color of its carapax, 

 taken in connection with the character of its posterior pair of limbs, which are modified into 

 swimming organs, as in the edible Crab. Its body is nearly as long as broad, the margins rudely 

 indicating a six-sided figure. The front lateral margins bear five spines each, which are directed 

 forward, and the front margin is deeply indented on each side of a slightly projecting three- 

 spined rostrum, to form cavities for the eyes. The front limbs, those bearing the claws, are long 

 and rather slender, and the succeeding three pairs are simple in their structure. " The color of 

 this Crab is quite bright and does not imitate the sand on which it lives, probably owing to its 

 mode of concealment. The ground-color is white, but the back is covered with annular spots 

 formed by specks of red and purple. The Lady Crab is perfectly at home among the loose sands 

 at low-water mark, even on the most exposed beaches. It is also abundant on sandy bottoms off 

 shore, and as it is furnished with swimming organs on its posterior legs, it can swim rapidly in 

 the water, and Ihis been taken at the surface in several instances, and some of the specimens thus 

 taken were of full size. When living at low-water mark on the sand beaches, it generally buries 

 itoelf up to its eyes and antennae in the sand, watching for prey, or on the lookout for enemies. 

 If disturbed, it quickly' glides backward and downward into the sand and disappears instantly. 



I, : Vim-yard Sound Report, p. 312, 1871-'72. 

 * WHITE: Popular History of the British Crustacea. 



