86 THE BLUE CRAB PIEI^S. 



which he obtained in a fish-market in Yarmouth. It had been 

 taken on the shore at Sandford, just outside of the mo\ith of the 

 Bay of Fundy, Yarmouth Co., six miles north-northwest of the 

 town of Yarmouth, N. S., about the year 1921. No person of the 

 district had met with the species before, and it is the only speci- 

 men Mr. Allen has noted in this province, although he has care- 

 fully examined the shore about Yarmouth for marine inverte- 

 brates. His specimen has since been lost. On the coast at 

 Sandford there is, 1 believe, a lagoon or cove which is separated 

 from the sea by a roadway. 



Summary of specimens. — In all, seventeen specimens and the 

 right cheliped of an eighteenth one, have been received by the 

 Museum from the Cow Bay district, exclusive of the old female, 

 without data, which we suppose must have been also collected 

 here. Of the 18 complete specimens, 12 are males, immature 

 and adult, varying in greatest width from 4.20 inches to 6.03 

 inches; and 6 are females, varying in width from 4.30 inches to 

 5.90 inches. Of the females, 2 are adults with the distinguishing 

 broad, rounded abdomen, and 4 are immature specimens with 

 wedge-shaped abdomens.* 



Grouped as to months in which they were taken, we get the 

 following result; April, 6 specimens (all male): May, 3, (2 

 males and I immature female); November, 6, (4 males and 2 

 immature females); and December, 2, (both females, immature 

 and adult). These scant figures indicate that they may be 

 most common in April and November. It is possible that 

 during the more busy summer season they were not searched 

 for. In the winter they no doubt retire, as elsewhere in their 

 range, to the bottom in deeper and warmer water, but they 

 are met with on shore as early as the later part of April and 

 as late as 1 Ith December. In Chesapeake Bay, Va. and Md., U. 

 S. A., they are most abundantly taken in May or June, and in 

 October or November. 



Particulars of Nova Scotian specimens. — On the next page 

 are given particulars of the eighteen complete specimens and 

 one cheliped of Callinecles sapidus in the Provincial Museum: 



* Unlike the case of the female, we have no criterion by which to distinguish adult males from 

 immature ones, except so far as size and general appearance is indicative of age, unless one can 

 make observations on sexual activity. 



