238 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with a snapping, action to drive back the Spider-Crabs or forceps. 

 On the eleventh day, after hesitating for several minutes, it slowly 

 and cautiously conveyed to its mouth some pieces of mussel which 

 had been gently placed in its chelae. It was not until the forty-first 

 day that it had become tame enough to reach forward with its chelae 

 to take mussel from the forceps. On the forty-fourth day it not only 

 reached eagerly forward for the food, but came partly out of its hole 

 to take it ; and it began to eat without allowing a few minutes to 

 elapse, which it had never done before. Its fearlessness of the 

 forceps, and its eagerness to take food from them, became more and 

 more marked until its death, but it would never endure a touch, 

 particularly on the hinder part of its body. The Galathea would 

 remain for several days or weeks in its hole, then remove to the 

 opposite corner of the tank, and afterwards move back again. It 

 never seemed to conquer its fear of the Spider-Crabs. (2) Another 

 specimen was placed in the same tank on January 13th. Its 

 behaviour was essentially similar to that of the first one; but, 

 although it gradually became less and less afraid of the forceps, it 

 had not become confident enough to reach forward for food by the 

 thirty-sixth day, when it died. Both animals died in the early stages 

 of casting their exoskeletons. — H. N. Milligan. 



Nereis fucata Eaten by Hermit- Crab. — It is well known that the 

 worm Nereis fucata is often to be found in the shell inhabited by a 

 Common Hermit-Crab (Eupagurus bemhardus), and that the worm 

 will put out its head in order to snatch pieces of food from the very 

 jaws of the crustacean. I wished to ascertain whether a Hermit-Crab 

 would be as tolerant of a strange Nereis fucata if I tried to intro- 

 duce the worm into its shell. I broke open a Whelk shell in which 

 a Hermit-Crab had recently died. The worm retreated from whorl 

 to whorl as each was broken away, and once it made a surprisingly 

 vigorous stab at my fingers with its mandibles. When the worm was 

 placed against the shell of a Hermit-Crab, the crustacean at once seized 

 and began to eat it ; and a Hairy Hermit-Crab (Eupagurus pubescens) 

 also attacked the annelid. The worm, however, wriggled from the 

 grasp of the Hermit-Crabs ; thrust its head into the bed of (very tiny) 

 pebbles ; and then made its retreat beneath the pebbles in an eel-like 

 fashion, the slight heavings of the surface marking its comparatively 

 rapid progress beneath. I do not know what became of it after- 

 wards. — H. N. Milligan. 



