24 REPORTS. 



The little Pipe-fish or Sea-horse — Hippocampus brcvi- 

 rostris — proved intelligent, but timid and retiring. It would 

 remain for a considerable time hooked on to a piece of 

 sea-weed by its prehensile tail, throwing its body into all 

 kinds of graceful attitudes. The male fish has a groove 

 running along its belly, in which the eggs are placed after 

 being laid by the female. One I obtained had the ova 

 in situ, and in due course they hatched out. but the young 

 were all devoured by the other fish. 



I tried several small Conger-eels — Conger vulgaris — but 

 they did not thrive well, and those that survived always 

 remained sulky. Though, after a time, they would take food 

 from the wooden tweezers I used, at the slightest thing that 

 alarmed them they instantly retreated to their lair -a small 

 space between two masses of rock. 



Of the Crustaceans, the Prawns and Shrimps — Palacmo- 

 nidce and Crangouida — proved by far the most interesting. 

 They soon became very tame, and would not only take food 

 from my fingers without any fear, but would snatch food 

 intended for the fishes and anemones, and even dash down 

 boldly and cany off food partly swallowed by the anemones. 

 The only anemones whose tentacles they seemed to fear at 

 all were the Opelet and the large " Crass." I had to use a 

 small cane to drive them away while feeding the anemones, 

 and they soon got to know its appearance and would rush to 

 the other side of the tank when they saw it coming, only 

 to return as soon as it was laid clown. 



Of the Crabs the only ones I found worth keeping were 

 the common Green Shore Crab — Carcinus mcenas — and the 

 Hermit — Pagurus Bernliardus. Both of these became fairly 

 tame, though the Hermit crabs seemed much the more intelligent 

 of the two, but unfortunately they were inveterate fighters. 



But though the Hermit is so pugnacious as long as it 

 is safely lodged in the shell of some other mollusc, nothing on 

 earth exceeds its shamefacedness when deprived of the shell 

 in which it has taken its abode — not even a bather whose 

 clothes have been stolen. 



The Velvet Fiddler — Portunus puber — one of the prettiest 

 of our crabs — though it proved to be an excellent scavenger, 

 w 7 as altogether too voracious and pugnacious to keep in such a 

 confined space. It never showed the slightest fear, however, 

 and would furiously attack the wooden tweezers when the 

 other animals were being fed. 



An Octopus — Octopus vulgaris — which I kept by itself 

 for some months proved quite untameable, and though it exhi- 



