I 887] Fiddler-Crabs, ` 415 
exclusively medical institution, and as this work is printed and 
published at his own expense, and not as a part of any public 
reports or proceedings. Professor T. A. Smith’s book on Sal- 
monides and Coregonides, just issued, may perhaps likewise not 
yet have been received here. 
Before leaving our Swedish zoologists I wish to mention the 
work that some of them are engaged in at present. Their Nestor, 
Professor S. Lovén, now seventy-seven years of age, is revising 
the Echinoderms described by Linnzus. Professor Lilljeborg 
is publishing his book on the Scandinavian Fishes, and, after 
having finished that work, he intends to publish a volume on the 
Entomestraca. Théel is working on the Holothurians collected 
on board the United States steamer “ Blake.” C. Bovallius is 
busy with the Hyperidz and the parasitic Isopods, C. Aurivillius 
with the Lepadidz, F. Fristedt with the Sponges contained in our 
“ Riksmuseum.” 
* 
FIDDLER-CRABS. 
BY J. M‘'NAIR WRIGHT. 
Y most intimate friends at the seaside are the ill-tempered 
but handsome fiddler-crabs,—Gelasimus of science. I en- 
joy their beauty and their ability, but am no doubt cordially 
hated by them for my interference with their domestic affairs. 
There is an intensity to their action which is seldom met with 
among the lower inhabitants of the shore. I have watched them 
by the hour and have never tired. Their holes dot the beach in 
favored localities, and near each hole is a small heap of sand — 
brought up from below by the industrious digger, whose cellar 
never seems large enough. I have noticed that there is a corre- 
spondence between the noise made in seating one’s self near a 
hole and the length of time that elapses before the worker ap- 
pears, and that his first appearance is made with extreme caution. 
There can be no question about his sense of hearing. A ra 
near the hole keeps him down a long time, conversation in the 
vicinity has the same effect, and then when he does venture to 
appear at his door, it is with the most timid air. He protrudes 
but a portion of his body and then carefully examines his sur- 
