34 Annual Report. [Feb. 



The contributions of zoological writers do not bulk very largely in 

 our publications for the past year, owing largely to the fact that our 

 leading contributor, Major A. Alcock, T.M.S., F.R.S., has been occupied 

 on other publications, which under the circumstances may well claim 

 notice here. One is the first instalment of a Catalogue of the Decapod 

 Crustacea in the collection of the Indian Museum, published by the 

 Tmstees. This part contains the Introduction, and an account of the 

 curious group Bromides or Dromiacea, crabs which are remarkable for 

 their narrow form, long antennae, and the position of the last pair of 

 legs on the back ; these curiously-placed legs being often used to carry 

 a sponge or shell used as a protection. These crabs, as a matter of fact, 

 find their nearest allies in the lobsters. 



Full descriptions of the Indian genera and species are given, to- 

 gether with lists of the specimens in the Museum collection, and the 

 locality and depth at which these were obtained, generally by the 

 Marine Survey ship Investigator. 



The Introduction will be of especial value to students of the 

 Crustacea everywhere, inasmuch as it contains a full account of the 

 structure of the group Decapoda (comprising the crabs, lobsters, and 

 shrimps), illustrated by reference to the Andaman Lobster (Nephrops 

 ondamanicus) . This species has been chosen instead of the usual type, 

 the European crayfish {Astacus fluviatilis), since it belongs to our local 

 fauna in the East. Subsequently the Brachyura or crabs are compared 

 with this general type. A particularly interesting section is that which 

 deals with the general bionomy, or habits of life, of crabs as a whole. 

 They are, says the author, " the most highly organised and most intelli- 

 gent of the crustacean class. The Cyclometopes and Catometopes are 

 particularly alert and active, and among several of the gregarious species 

 of amphibious Catometopes life appears to be almost as complex as it is 

 among many insects." 



The second and larger work is a complete Descriptive Catalogue of 

 the Indian Deep-sea Crustacea in the, Indian Museum, being a revised 

 account of the deep-sea species collected by the Investigator and also 

 published by the Trustees. This is by no means a reprint of earlier 

 published reports, for in addition to tables and descriptions of species, it 

 contains tables and definitions of all the groups under which these are 

 arranged, from subgenera up to suborders ; and it also embodies a large 

 amount of material which the author has prepared to serve as the basis 

 for the more comprehensive work on the Indian Crustacea above com- 

 mented on. Accounts of many of the species dealt with herein have 

 been published in our Journal by Major Alcock and Captain A. R. S. 

 Anderson, I. M.S., and by the late Professor Wood-Mason. This large 



