Mr. Broderip on the Habits of Paguri. 203 



of the first there were forty-two ot various sizes, and they were housed in 

 the following marine shells, which were in every instance well adapted to 

 the bulk of the inhabitant. Two were housed in Turbo Pica, two in 

 Natica Canrena, and one in Bulla striata. There were eight in Fasciolaria 

 Tulipa, and twenty-nine in Pyrula Melongena. Of the latter species of 

 Pagurus (the common soldier of Browne*) there were ten. One was 

 housed in Fasciolaria Tulipa, and nine in Pyrula Melongena. The shells 

 chosen by these last were large in proportion to the bulk of the inhabitant, 

 so large indeed, that some of the Paguri were scarcely visible. Another 

 gentleman who resided some time in the West Indies, informed me that 

 he has seen the first-mentioned species about his house, when he lived at 

 Port Henderson, and that he had also observed them about the houses at 

 Spanish Town, a place about six miles distant from the sea. Westmore- 

 land, I am informed, swarms with them. The habits of these animals, 

 as described by Mr. De la Beche, form a practical illustration of the ob- 

 servations and experiments contained in the fourth memoir of M. M. An- 

 douin and Milne Edwards " De la respiration aerienne des Crustaces, et 

 " des modifications que i'appareil branchial eprouve dans les crabes ter- 

 " restres," lately read to the French Academy of Sciences. The authors 

 of that interesting paper shew that, in all the Crustacea, the branchias are 

 fitted to perform the functions of respiratory organs, in the air as well as 

 in the water — that the more or less rapid death of the aquatic species 

 exposed to the air depends upon various causes, of which one of the most 

 direct is the evaporation from the branchiae, which produces their desicca- 

 tion — that, consequently, one of the conditions necessary to the support 

 of life in animals which have branchiae, and live in the air, is the having 

 these organs defended against desiccation — 'and lastly, that these disposi- 

 tions actually occur in the Tourlouroux and other land-crabs, which all 

 possess various organs destined for absorbing and keeping in reserve the 

 quantity of water necessary for maintaining a suitable degree of moisture 

 in the branchiae.f 



* Nat. Hist, of Jamaica, p. 424. 



f There will be found, I apprehend, an analogous structure in some of the 

 Cirripeda, particularly the pedunculata. These, from their habits of attaching 

 themselves to floating bodies, are very liable to be stranded and require som.e 

 provision in the organs of respiration to enable ihem to live till the returning 



o2 



