NOTES AND QUEBIES. 118 



Sturfc at Crosbury, Little Horsted, Sussex. It was purchased at a 

 sale of the effects of the late Mrs. Sturt at Jarvis Brook, Crow- 

 borough, some few days previously. Mrs. Green, of Hove, very 

 kindly offered to obtain some information as to the year in which 

 it was obtained, and wrote her brother, Mr. Charles Sturt, who, 

 though he well remembered the bird being brought home, could not 

 give the date, further than it was between forty-five and fifty years 

 ago. Judging by the plumage I suppose it to be a male. I thought 

 it as well that this should bo recorded. — Egbert Morris (Uckfield, 

 Sussex). 



CRUSTACEA. 



Ecdysis in a Hairy Hermit-Crab. — The habits and the rate of 

 casting of the exoskeleton of the hairy Hermit-Crab known as 

 Eiqjagicrus piibescens seem to have been little observed in captivity. 

 An average-sized individual in an aquarium cast its exoskeleton on 

 July 7th, and again on August 18th, of 1915. The animal was healthy, 

 and fed eagerly on pieces of mussel and beef. It disappeared on 

 October 26th without having cast again, and presumably it had either 

 escaped from the aquarium or been torn to pieces by the larger 

 Common Hermit-Crabs in the same tank. The number of clear days 

 which elapsed between the two castings was therefore forty-one. 

 Sixty-eight clear days elapsed from the date of the second casting to 

 that of the disappearance of the Hermit-Crab. — H. N. Milligan. 



Shore-Crabs Attacking Opelet Sea-Anemones. — On September 9th 

 five average- sized individuals of the Shore -Crab {Carcinus mcenas) 

 were placed in an aquarium. On the 16th about twenty examples 

 of the Opelet Sea- Anemone {Anthea cereus), varying in size from half 

 an inch to three inches and a half across their extended tentacles, 

 were placed in the same tank. The Shore-Crabs have never hesitated 

 to attack the Sea-Anemones, and to tear off, and in some cases 

 actually to eat, their tentacles. The Shore-Crabs would also rob the 

 Sea-Anemones of food by thrusting their claws amongst the tentacles, 

 or into the food-cavities, of the Sea-Anemones and dragging out the 

 food recently taken. The Shore-Crabs never seem to sustain any 

 damage in these encounters, or even to be perturbed in any way by 

 the presence of nematocysts when they take the tentacles into their 

 mouths. The Sea- Anemones underwent so much persecution that on 

 November 16th they were removed from the aquarium. The curious 

 mixture of delicacy and hardiness so often displayed by the Opelet 

 Sea-Anemone in captivity is well known, and it is interesting to 

 observe that in spite of persecution these coelenterates are still 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XX., March, 1916. k 



