Crustacea. 3681 



from him as worse than useless. The dredge and the shrimp-net will 

 not be neglected by any who have the means of plying them, as being 

 two of the best modes of obtaining objects for investigation. But 

 perhaps the most plentiful source which the student of the British 

 Crustacea can have recourse to, is the stomach of the cod, the had- 

 dock, and the various other kinds of fish killed on our coasts. " The 

 stomachs of fishes," says Prof. Forbes, " are often zoological treasu- 

 ries. The haddock is a great conchologist. In his travels through 

 the country of the mermaids he picks up many curiosities in the shell 

 way. Not a few have been discovered by him ; and the ungrateful 

 zoologist too frequently describes novelties without an allusion to the 

 original discoverer." — ' British Star-fishes,' p. 37. 



Except when otherwise noticed, all the species of this list have 

 been found on the shores of the Moray Firth, between the Spey and 

 the Findhorn, gathered from the boats and lines of the Stotfield and 

 Lossiemouth fishermen, or collected from the stomachs of fish caught 

 by them in their ordinary fishing-grounds lying from five to fifteen 

 miles from the shore. Specimens of all the Crustaceans here noticed 

 are, in a more or less perfect state, to be seen in the Elgin Museum. 

 The order and scientific names are adopted from Bell's ' History of 

 British Crustacea ; ' and, in a few cases, where they differ from Prof. 

 Bell's nomenclature, the English names are taken from Mr. White's 

 6 Catalogue of British Crustacea in the British Museum.' 



Slender-legged Spider Crab, Stenoryhynchus Phalangium. Fre- 

 quent. Dredged, August, 1852, five miles off" Lossiemouth. 



Slender-beaked Spider Crab, Stenorhynchus tenuirostris. Occa- 

 sional. By no means so abundant as the preceding species. The 

 late lamented Mr. W. Thompson, in his list of Irish Crustacea in the 

 ' Annals of Natural History,' says " I look upon S. tenuirostris and S. 

 Phalangium, although extreme forms are very distinctly marked, to 

 be in reality but one species." 



Scorpion Spider Crab, Inachus Dorsettensis. The most abundant 

 of the slender-legged crabs (Leptopodiadae) in the Firth. On one oc- 

 casion, twelve full-grown specimens were taken from the stomach of 

 an ordinary-sized cod, of which fish, in this locality, it seems to be a 

 favourite morsel. 



Slender-armed Spider Crab, Inachus leptochirus. Five specimens 

 of this " extremely rare " crab were taken from the stomach of a cod 

 in 1849 ; and a few more have since been met with in similar localities. 



Great Spider Crab, Hyas araneus. Very common; often found near 



X. 3 b 



