252 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



coasts of Syria and Barbary, and abounds at Cape de Verde, 



owes his name to his swiftness, which is such that even a man 



on horseback is said not to be able to 



overtake him. The West Indian ocy- 



podas dig holes three or four feet deep, 



immediately above high-water mark. 



and leave them after dusk. Towards 



the end of October they retire further 



American Sand-Crab. inland, and bury themselves for the 



winter in similar holes, the opening of 



which they carefully conceal. 



In the Portuni, or true Sea-crabs, finally, we find the hind 



pair of legs flattened like fins, so that they would cut but a 



sorry figure on the land, but are all the 



better able to row about in their congenial 



element. 



A strange peculiarity of many crabs is 

 the quantity of parasites they carry along 

 with them on their backs. Many marine 

 productions, both of a vegetable and 



Spotted Fin-Crab. r ' ..... 



animal nature, have their birth and grow 

 to beauty on the shell of the sea-spider. Corallines, sponges, 

 zoophytes, algae, may thus be found, andbalani occasionally cover 

 the entire upper surface of the body of the crab. "All the 

 examples of the Inachus Dorsettensis which I have taken," says 

 the distinguished naturalist, Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, " were 

 invested with sponge, which generally covers over the body, 

 arms, and legs ; algso and zoophytes likewise spring from it." In 

 this extraneous matter some of the smaller zoophytes find 

 sheltei, and, together with the other objects, render the capture 

 of the Inachus Dorsettensis interesting far beyond its own acquisi- 

 tion. In Mr. Hyndman's collection, there is a sea-spider carry- 

 ing on its back an oyster much larger than itself, and covered 

 besides with numerous barnacles. Like Atlas, the poor creature 

 groaned under a world. 



The extraneous matters which so many crabs carry along with 

 them are, however, far from being always- a useless burden ; 

 they are often a warlike stratagem, under cover of which the 

 sly crustacean entraps many a choice morsel. Thus Bennett 

 witnessed at Otaheite the proceedings of an interesting Hyas 



