264 THE HORSE FOOT CRAB. 
with no figure of speech, in true nuptial bands, —the male 
riding on the shield of the female, and retaining himself 
firmly in this position by holding to the sides of the poste- 
rior carapace, with the two stout and short nipper feet, which 
are exclusively possessed by the males, which with the size 
of the animal, so much smaller than the female, serve to dis- 
tinguish the sex at a glance. . The female excavates a de- 
pression in the sand, drops her spawn into it, upon which 
the male emits the fecundating fluid, and the nest is at once 
deserted, the parents returning seaward, with the retreating 
tide. Occasionally, a pair less alert than the rest, is left by 
the tide, which, however, they will overtake, if unmolested. 
By the action of the water the eggs are immediately covered 
up with sand; though if the wind be unpropitious, large 
numbers are often washed up, and east in windrows on the 
beach, and soon devoured by the many hungry beings, of 
bird, fish, and mollusc kind that always abound. 
Our Limulus is a true monogamist. But it is likely that a 
new mate is accepted each spawning time. Occasionally a 
female comes to shore with even three suitors attached, two 
of them vainly endeavoring to unseat the accepted one. The 
above has led to the belief among fishermen of a dispropor- 
tion of the sexes. I think that this point cannot in that way 
be inferred. 
Though formerly the Horse Foot Crab was very plentiful 
in Rariton Bay it has become rather scarce. Accordingly 
they have to be watched for now. Not having the time to 
spare I engaged a fisherman to keep a lookout in the month 
of May, 1869, for an actual spawning. He was instructed 
to see the pair come up and spawn, and to capture them at 
once on their attempt to return with the tide; he was also 
told to scoop up with a tin vessel the whole spawn-mass, 
sand and all, and not to touch the eggs with his hands. I 
believe the man faithfully obeyed instructions. Thus the 
spawn and the parents were brought to me uninjured. My 
preparations had been carefully made. Hatching jars had 
