566 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



preparing the bait the man cracks the whelk shell with a 

 slight blow from a stone or hammer, picks out the hermit 

 and pulls the body apart at the peduncle or between the 

 last two thoracic segments. The cephalothorax and its 

 appendages are thrown away, and the soft abdomen only 

 is put on the hook. The custom in Devon of breaking 

 the shell to extract the Nereis within has already been 

 referred to (p. 560). 



Only one species seems to be used as food by the 

 human race. The natives of the Islands of the Pacific, 

 on which Birgus latro — the famous cocoanut crab — 

 occurs, greatly prize the oily abdomen of the beast as a 

 gastronomic delicacy.* The British Pagurids are not 

 sufficiently common ever to be exploited commercially as 

 a food for the table, but there seems no reason why such 

 a clean and dry Crustacean should not make as delectable 

 a dish as its more favoured Macrurid and Brachyurid 

 relations. 



* I have since seen an early description (Zool. Journ. 1828) 

 of the habits of Coenobita in Jamaica, in which it is stated that the 

 natives habitually bake the crab in its shell, and the author assures us 

 it is quite a savoury dish thus prepared. It is still eaten largely on 

 that island. 



