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tain, or whether he believed that Hasselquist was deceived on 

 the subject of the division to which it appertains, he made a 

 brachyurous crab of it, referring to it the characters which 

 Forskael had imposed upon it, and which he had communi- 

 cated in one of his letters. 



We frequently find, more particularly in winter, pin- 

 notheres in the muscles which are brought to market ; but the 

 females are always observed to be in a state analogous to that 

 in which a craw-fish is that has just changed its skin. The 

 occasional deleterious quality of muscles has been attributed, 

 though probably without reason, to the presence of these 

 parasites. 



The Gecarcini are terrestria Crustacea, to which the 

 French colonists of the Antilles commonly give the name of 

 tonrlourons and land-crabs. 



Pere Labat, in his Voyage to the French American Islands, 

 &c., has collected several observations on these Crustacea 

 He distinguishes four species of them ; the ioiwlourous, the 

 violet -crahs, the ichiie-crahs, and the ceriqties. What he 

 says of these last may answer for grapsus. They are found 

 in rivers and on rocks, at the edge of the sea ; they are much 

 flatter than the others ; their shell is thicker and harder; their 

 biters, or pincers, though much smaller, do not pinch less ; 

 they ha\'e also much less flesh and fat than the others, which 

 causes them to be in less esteem, or at all events, they consti- 

 tute the last resource of the negroes. Chauvalon, in his 

 Voyage to Martinique, says, that the cericss of the sea, and 

 which are not taken in the fresh waters, are the cire apoa of 

 the Brazilians, or the xirika of Guiana. It is evident, ac- 

 cording to the figure of the cire-apoa given by Marcgrave, 

 that this crustacecum is a portunus. It is possible that the 

 denomination of cerique may be common to Crustacea of dif- 

 ferent genera. Those which he represents are certainly 

 grapsi. According to Peron, the last species, and which ap- 



