208 NOTES ON THE FATTNA OF FALMOUTH. 



Running over these, possessed of very keen vision, were numbers 

 of Nantilograpsus minutus, Milne-Edwards . 



After a careful search., I have only been able to find that four 

 other specimens of this species have been secured on the coasts of 

 Devon and Cornwall. Mr. Spence-Bate,^ in his revision of Mr. 

 Couch's list of ' Crustacea ' in the Cornish Fauna, writing under 

 the synonym of Planes linneana Leach MSS. says : " This is a 

 stray inhabitant of our shores, and drifted hither after Atlantic 

 gales. Its proper habitat is the Saragossa or Grulf Weed of Mid- 

 Atlantic" "In our report, he continues, "to the British 



Association on the Marine Fauna and Flora of S. Devon and 

 Cornwall, Mr. Couch says ' ' In the spring of the present year, 

 1867, a specimen of the Hawk's-bill Turtle was taken in the 

 channel, at not a great distance from the French coast, and there- 

 fore not to be classed as British ; but when brought alive and 

 active into Polperro there were found, adhering closely under the 

 shelter of its tail, two full-grown specimens of this crab. ..." 

 Mr. Couch says ". ..a species of the Genus Grrapsus is in the 

 Athenaeum at Plymouth, under the name of G. pelagicus by Mr. 

 Prideaux, and known to Dr. Leach, but not in any published 

 work. It is understood that the collection in the Museum of that 

 Institution is confined to specimens taken on the borders of Devon 

 and Cornwall." 



The third specimen was secured by the scientific staff of the 

 Marine Biological Association'^^' at Plymouth under the following 

 circumstances: — On the 26th September, 1895, as the laboratory 

 steamer was passing the ship " Ballachulish " which had arrived 

 at Plymouth Sound two days previously, the steamer was stopped 

 for a few moments, and a fine specimen of Nantilograpsus 

 minutus was taken from the ship's side, together with a quantity 

 of Tubularia and numbers of Podocerus falcalus. 



The last specimen recorded was found on the 21st October of 

 the same year, secreted amid a huge mass of Lepas anatifera 

 which was flourishing on a buoy of a crab-pot picked up by a 

 fisherman off Plymouth, some two or three miles distant from 

 the shore. 



With the aid of a landing-net I secured some dozens of these 

 crustaceans during the first week after the arrival of this vessel. 

 At the end of that time, a good deal of the cargo had been 



