[467] INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF VINEYARD SOUND, ETC. 173 
such times of general retreat each one gets into the first hole that he 
can find. Associated with this “fiddler” another related crab, the Se- 
sarma reticulata, is occasionally found in considerable numbers. This 
is a stout-looking, reddish brown crab, with a squarish carapax; its large 
claws are stout and nearly equal in both sexes, instead of being very 
unequal, as in the male “fiddlers.” It lives in holes like the “ fiddlers,” 
put its holes are usually much larger, often an inch or an inch and a half 
in diameter. It is much less active than the “fiddlers,” but can pinch 
very powerfully with its large claws, which are always promptly used 
when an opportunity occurs. 
The Carcinus granulatus (p. 312) of large size may often be found con- 
cealed in the cavities under the banks undermined by the two preceding 
species, along the ditches and streams in the salt-marshes. On the 
marshes farther up the estuaries, and along the mouths of yivers and 
brooks, and extending up even to places where the water is quite fresh, 
another and much larger species of “fiddler-crab” occurs, often in abun- 
dance; this is the Gelasimus minar. It can be easily distinguished by 
its much larger size and by having a patch of red at the joints of the 
legs. Its habits have been carefully studied by Mr. T. M. Prudden of 
New Haven, but his interesting account of them bas not yet been pub- 
lished. He has also investigated its anatomy. According to Mr. Prud- 
den this species, like G. pugilator, (see p, 336,) is avegetarian. He often 
saw it engaged in scraping up and eating a minute green algoid plant, 
which covers the surface of the mud. The male uses its small claw ex- 
clusively in obtaining its food and conveying it to the mouth. The 
female uses either of her small ones indifferently. In enlarging its bur- 
rows Mr. Prudden observed that these crabs scraped off the mud from 
the inside of the burrow by means of the claws of the ambulatory legs, 
and having formed the mud into a pellet, pushed it up out of the hole 
by nieans of the elbow-like joint at the base of the great claw, when 
this is folded down. He also ascertained that this crab often constructs 
a regular oven-like arch of mud over the mouth of its burrow. This 
arch-way is horizontal, and large and long enough to contain the crab, 
who quietly sits in this curious door-way on the lookout for his enemies 
of all kinds. 
This species can live out of water and without food for many days. 
It can also live in perfectly fresh water. One large male was kept in 
my laboratory in a glass jar containing nothing but a little siliceous sand, 
moistened with pure fresh water, for over six months. During this 
whole period he seemed to be constantly in motion, walking round and 
round the jar and trying to climb out. He was never observed to rest 
or appear tired, and after months of confinement and starvation was 
just as pugnacious as ever. 
Although some of the colonies of this species live nearly or quite up 
to fresh water, others are found farther down on the marshes, where the 
water is quite brackish, and thus there is a middle ground where this 
