A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



when kept in captivity, seemed to indicate an angry impatience by the frequent noisy clashing of 

 their chelipeds. Bell says ' it was not until this species was obtained by Montagu in the estuary of 

 Kingsbridge, Devon, that it was ascertained to be British.' But Leach more correctly gives the 

 credit to Pennant.^ 



As to Planes minutus, Parfitt remarks that ' there are three specimens of this species in the 

 British Museum collection, believed to have been taken on the coast of Devon ; but this species can 

 only be looked upon as an occasional visitor, being drifted upon our coast, from the Gulf-stream on 

 the Sargasso [Sargassum] bacciferum, and other weeds. It cannot claim to be a native.'^ Bell 

 quotes from Sloane's Natural History of Jamaica, that ' Columbus finding it alive on the sargasso 

 floating in the sea, concluded himself not far from some land, in the first voyage he made, on the 

 discovery of the West Indies.' In Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels there is a different story. 

 There we read that Columbus and his little fleet left the Canaries on 6 September, 1492. 'Sep- 

 tember the 7th they lost sight of land ; and with that, their courages too ; a great many of them 

 taking their leaves of this, and expecting the next time to land in the other world. Columbus 

 comforted these cowards as well as he could ; and to do it effectually, was fain to cheat them in his 

 reckoning. . . . On Sunday, the i6th, they saw grass and herbs floating on the water, and some 

 small animals (grasshoppers) alive amongst them ; which made some of them (now come to a little 

 better hope) believe, they should see dry Land once more, and that quickly, too.' ' 



There is still some doubt as to the number of genuine British species assignable to the genus 

 Pinnotheres. According to various authorities examples have been found in the shells of Pinnae, 

 Ostrea edulis, Mytilus modiolus, Glycimeris, Cardium edule, and Cardium norvegicum. The 

 variety of habitat may or may not correspond with some variation in the tenants. Besides the two 

 species accepted in our list, Leach at one time or another distinguished P. varians (Olivi) ; 

 P. mytilorum, Latreille ; and introduced on his own account P. mytili, with the remark that 'this 

 interesting species was discovered by a most zealous and enlightened collector, Mr. Cranch, in 

 Mytilus modiolus, from the Kingsbridge estuary, dredged from the oyster-bed near Gerston Point ' ; 

 P. pinnae, ' discovered by Montagu in Pinna ingens, from the Salcombe estuary, since which Mr. Cranch 

 has taken two females out of the same shell from the same situation'; P. modioli, 'discovered, 

 by Montagu in Mytilus modiolus, from the Kingsbridge estuary : female unknown.' * He subse- 

 quently thought himself warranted in making several changes in the nam.es, for P. mytilorum 

 substituting P. latreillii, for P. mytili and P. modioli adopting respectively the names of their reputed 

 discoverers, P. cranchii and P. montagui, but dropping P. pinnae as a synonym of P. veterum. 



The Oxyrrhyncha, all familiarly known as spider crabs, which dress themselves ' some in rags, 

 and some in tags, and some in velvet gowns,' are a fascinating set of creatures. In recent times their 

 manners and customs have been closely observed. The quaint villosity of their shells, the shapes and 

 positions of their varied hairs and spines, have been shown to be no caprice of nature, but furniture in 

 the right place and necessary to the owner's welfare. Parfitt, in a long and interesting note on 

 Blastus trihulus, compares some of its hairs to the ambulacral spines of sea-urchins, by others he is 

 reminded of the crockets in Gothic architecture. Of a third set, which are very conspicuous to 

 the naked eye, he says, ' as far as their use is concerned, I conceive they are only for ornamentation; 

 but,' as he prudently adds, 'in this I may be mistaken.' ° 



Inachus dorynchus ' was discovered by Dr. Leach, whilst he was washing some specimens of 

 /. Dorsettensis, sent him by Mr. Prideaux and Mr. Cranch from the Kingsbridge estuary.'* Like 

 the companion species, he says, ' it is generally overgrown with marine matter, which circumstance 

 has doubtless concealed it from notice.' ' In establishing Inachus leptochirus Leach says, ' Mr. John 

 Cranch discovered this species of Inachus on the western coast of Devon or Cornwall ; and it has 

 since been taken from a crab-pot in Bigbury Bay by C. Prideaux, Esq. It is easily distinguished 

 from Inachus Dorhynchus by its more slender arms, and by the number and dispositions of the spines 

 on the back. The tubercle also on the breast of the male is a very striking and curious character.'* 

 Whether the altered spelling of dorynchus in the last quotation was accidental or corrective must be 

 left to conjecture. Our readers may remember that in the interval between 1815 and 181 7 Leach 

 had become acquainted with a great scholar, Joseph Goodall, then provost and previously head master 

 of Eton, who may have expressed a horror of an unaspirated rhynchus. Concerning Macropodia 

 tenuirostris Leach says, ' I first observed this species amongst some Crustacea collected at Torquay, in 

 southern Devon, by Hooker, and have since found it a very common inhabitant of all the deep 

 water off the coast of that county, especially in the Sound of Plymouth.' ' M. egyptia, first figured 

 in Savigny's fine plates of Egyptian Crustacea, was not known as British to Leach or Bell or Parfitt. 



' Edinb. Encycl. vii, 393. ' Trans. Devon. Jssoc. iv, pt. i,p. 187 (1870). 



' Op. cit. p. S (1705). * Edinb. Encycl. vii, 430,431. 



' Tram. Devon. Assoc, iv, 192 (1870). ' Edinb. Encycl. vii, 431. 



' Malac. Pod. Brit, text to pi. xxii, figs. 7, 8 (i Jan. 18 15). * Op. cit. text to pi. xxii b (i July, 1817). 



° Op. cit. text to pi. xxiii (Sept. 1815). 



258 



