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NOTES ON MAEINE CKUSTACEA IN CONFINEMENT. 



By Albert H. Waters, B.A. 



I have from my very childhood had a penchant for keeping 

 marine aquaria. I started my first one at Great Yarmouth, when 

 residing there as quite a youngster. It was there that I made 

 acquaintance with the Common Shore Crab (Carcinus mcenas), 

 and, by the way, I was beguiled into eating one or two which 

 someone had put in a saucepan of water and boiled. I had them 

 for tea, and survived it ! But my interest was more with the 

 living Crabs as creatures to be watched moving about in a vessel 

 of sea-water, and I did not personally regard them with gastro- 

 nomical eyes. From that day to this I have seldom been for 

 long without living specimens of these Crabs — not to say others. 

 What has always been an attraction to me is their readiness to 

 adapt themselves to circumstances, and become on good terms 

 with me. I have had them so tame that the} 7 have gently taken 

 meat from my fingers without attempting to pinch them. What 

 the amount of their intelligence really is I cannot say, but I 

 could write a volume on the psychology of these and other 

 marine creatures I have had under observation, especially in 

 the days when an injury to my spine made me a prisoner, and 

 my aquaria and vivaria were some of my solaces. Just as 

 prisoners in a dungeon have learnt things about the ways of 

 spiders, and even tamed them, so, when my injury made me 

 delicate in health, I learnt from my aquaria and vivaria traits 

 in the nature of the lower animals I might never have known 

 had I always been healthy and strong ; for then I should have 

 been so employed as not to have the time for careful observa- 

 tion. 



As I have mentioned the Shore Crab, I may as well commence 

 with this common member of the Portunidce. I have been able 

 to study its life-history from the ovum to the aged crab, and, 

 when I say that I have had the same individuals living for years, 



