ON CRUSTACEA. 277 



food. But vvlien the tide ebbs, it returns with it by swimming, 

 because it is then afraid to be left upon the sand, and has no 

 further prey to expect. Most generally it swims and walks 

 forward; but should it be seized by any sudden fear, ife 

 escapes by swimming sideways, and even backwards. During 

 the winter it disappears from the coast and retires into the 

 depths of the sea. It returns in spring, and the female, in 

 consequence of the eggs which she then carries, is very much 

 esteemed as food. It is reported that this crustacecum some- 

 times issues from the water, to seek its subsistence on the 

 strand. A great number of them are taken daily during the 

 summer at Charleston. 



" All the portuni which inhabit our sea," (the coast of 

 Nice) says M. Risso, "live united in society, and each species 

 chooses a dwelling conformable to its wants and habits. The 

 himaculatus takes up its sojourn in the region of the cortici- 

 ferous polyparia. The jniher oxiA. plicatus prefer rocks seve- 

 ral hundred feet under water. The depurator delights in 

 pebbly plains, always mixing with the columns of little clupefc, 

 such as the anchovy and pilchard. Another, imperfectly de- 

 scribed by Rondelet, whose name it bears, conceals itself 

 under the mud. The guttatus inhabits the middle of the 

 alga3, which grow at a considerable depth ; and the P. lo)iyipes 

 frequents the holes of the compact limestone which edges the 

 coasts. The portuni feed on mollusca and small Crustacea, 

 which they break to pieces, and grind by means of the osselets 

 of their stomach. Their flesh has not the same taste in all 

 the species, and it is only those which live in the rocks that 

 are made use of as food ; the others serve as bait for fish. 



" Many of these Crustacea are tormented by little aselotta?, 

 which insinuate themselves under their corslet, and attach 

 themselves upon their gills. The female portuni have many 

 births in the year, and deposit each time from four hundred to 

 six thousand little globular and transj^arent eggs, which dis- 



