91. A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 



known name of Grapsns pictiis. Professor Th. Bairois, in 

 bis account of the Crustacea of the Azores, speaks of this 

 and two companion species as running with astonishing 

 velocity among the rocks near the sea. The brilliantly 

 coloured Gru.psus, with its limbs of a marvellous red, he 

 calls a superb species. As it occupies by preference the 

 sides of the perpendicular cliffs, it is easy to believe the 

 statement that prodigies of agility and cunning are re- 

 quired for capturing uninjured specimens. In Charleston 

 Bay Bnsc had a much easier task. There he noticed that 

 these crabs almost always kept themselves concealed under 

 stones or pieces of wood, and, as these objects are rare in that 

 locality, every day on the retreat of the tide he was sure 

 to find fresh specimens of Grapsus under the hiding-places 

 from which he had taken other specimens on the previous 

 day. Darwin, in ' A Naturalist's Voyage,' when speaking 

 of the nests of the tern at St. Paul's Eocks in the Atlantic, 

 says, ' It was amusing to watch how quickly a large and 

 active crab (Grapsus), which inhabits the crevices of the 

 rock, stole the fish from the side of the nest, as soon as we 

 had disturbed the parent birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of 

 the few persons who have landed here, informs me that he 

 saw the crabs dragging even the young birds out of their 

 nests and devouring them.' The voracity and audacity, 

 the cunning and speed and jumping powers of these crabs 

 of St. Paul's Rocks are amusingly described in the ' Log 

 Letters of the Challenger,' by Lord George Campbell, who 

 however, saw no proof that they ate the young birds. 



About a dozen other genera have been formed with 

 names in which Grapsus is part of the compound, as 

 Geograpsus, Paragrapsus, Platygrapisns, and the like. Several 

 of these contain species which were at one time included 

 in the genus Grapsus, and which are by no means very 

 remote from it. 



The Cancer marmoratus of Fabricius has been trans- 

 ferred from Grapsus to Paohygrapsus, Randall, by Stimpson, 

 and to Goniograpsus, Dana, by Miers. It is a European 

 species, common among chinks of the rocks in the Adriatic. 

 It prowls about on the shore by night to feed on dead 



