2326 Crustacea. 



Suggestions for obtaining Crustacea. — The ' Zoologist ' opened its pages for re- 

 marks upon the species of every department of the animal kingdom. A glance, how- 

 ever, at the contents of almost any one of its numbers, will show that the space 

 occupied severally by these departments is varied, and bears no due proportion to the 

 number or interest of the beings that fill the different classes. It appears, then, from 

 the correspondents of the Editor, that the quadrupeds have barely had their due in 

 this respect, — the birds perhaps their fair proportion, — while the insects of Britain 

 have caused more communications, if not occupied more space, than all that has been 

 written in the ' Zoologist ' of other animals. There is one division which seems to 

 have been almost entirely neglected — the Crustacean. The remarks on the members 

 of this department are few and far between. To say they are less beautiful when 

 seen, or less interesting when observed by the eye of the naturalist, than any other ob- 

 jects of his research, is not correct, and must not be sustained as a sufficient answer 

 for the paucity of the remarks regarding them that have hitherto appeared in the 

 1 Zoologist.' Two better-founded reasons may be assigned, viz., the difficulty of ob- 

 taining any variety of the species, and the absence of any modern systematic guide 

 illustrating and determining the British Crustacea. The latter of these two reasons 

 is now, and has been for the last four years, in the course of being remedied by the 

 publication of the admirable ' History ' by Professor Bell, with which the great fault 

 that is to be found is the provoking time it is taking to drag its slow length out of the 

 printer's hands. The following are the dates of its publication as given on the wrap- 

 pers of the different numbers: No. 1, on October 1, 1844; No. 2, December do.; 

 No. 3, May do. (but surely 1845) ; No. 4, January 1, 1846 ; No. 5, January 1, 1847 ; 

 and No. 6, January 1, 1848 ; being four years in issuing six numbers — not 300 pages 

 in all. Why is this, when Forbes and Hanley's coloured work on the Mollusca of 

 Britain, by the same publisher, has reached the ninth number since the present year 

 began ? But still the ' History of the British Crustacea' is in progress, and many a 

 reader of the ' Zoologist' may have got its six numbers, or may live to see the work 

 completed. Yet they may exclaim, " Well, we have got the book, but how are the 

 animals, of which it treats so well, to be laid hold of ? ' Call spirits from the vasty 

 deep, but will they come ? '" A dredge ! " Oh ! a dredge requires a yacht, or at 

 least a boat, &c, &c. Moreover, were these in possession, the waves of the briny deep 

 are apt to cause such unpleasant ' antiperistaltic ' motions, that the Portunus depur- 

 tator, &c, would far more likely have a dinner than death from our attempts to dredge 

 them from their submarine retreats." But the sea shore ! " Well, a little may be 

 done in that way ; but by those only who live near it, as many years may be spent be- 

 fore a tolerable collection could be formed from among the rejectamenta of the sea." 

 Let all this be granted. There yet remains another source from which many good 

 specimens and a great variety of Crustaceans may be readily got, viz., from the 

 stomachs of fish — particularly of the cod ; and these can be obtained by many who 

 reside at a distance from the shore. By a small douceur to the fisherman's family, 

 and by the assistance of the fish-curer on the coast, the fishmonger of the large town, 

 or of some acquaintance in the fishing village, it is believed that almost any number 

 of these now useless receptacles could be obtained. It may excite at first a little nau- 

 sea to open up and examine these omnivorous reservoirs, but this will soon pass off; 

 and were it of longer continuance than it is, the stores to be unfolded would amply 

 compensate for all the disagreeable feeling that may for a time arise. It is not only 



