182 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
has a median crest of angular projections running forward to 
the rostrum, and its cephalic part is beset with a number of 
thorny points projecting forward. 
Among the anomurans are several kinds of hermit crabs. One 
of these Paguristes gray, has the dorsal surface of the carapace 
and of the exposed appendages colored a very rich crimson, 
maculated with sharply defined white spots which are round like 
polka-dots. The chele are strongly barred, and the two are 
nearly alike in size. Another hermit is quite small, but the left 
chela is much enlarged, turgid, with a relatively short finger. 
The hand has a very conspicuous bright blue area on an almost 
white background. The other exposed appendages are light 
yellow with distinct black polka dots. | 
Brachyura.—The common “‘fiddler’’ crab appears to be Uca 
leptostyla, agreeing well with the excellent figures given by Miss 
Rathbun in her ‘‘Grapsoid Crabs of America,’’ which by the 
way, is an extremely useful work for those who wish to identify 
these very numerous crustaceans. This ‘‘fiddler’’ is very com- 
mon on some mud-flats bordered by mangrove swamps back of 
English Harbor. There is something irresistibly comic in these 
creatures as they raise their preposterously large chele in front 
of them like boxers squaring off for a bout. It seems to be large- 
ly a matter of ‘‘putting up a bluff’’ however, although they can 
pinch with a vengeance when cornered. I imagine that these 
chele are proportionately among the largest found among the 
erustacea, and the relation of the width to length of the carapace 
is also very exceptional. The chele can very easily be cast off, 
thus enabling the animal to escape by leaving its weapons in the 
hands of the enemy. The manner in which these creatures wave 
their eye-stalks around at times gives them an exceedingly know- 
ing and wary appearance. Their eyesight must be particularly 
good, as they scuttle away in a regular wave before the human 
intruder has approached within fifteen or twenty feet, and sidle 
along so nimbly that it is by no means easy to secure them before 
they pop sidewise into their holes in the mud to issue out again 
promptly after the danger has passed. I saw no fiddlers on the 
sand beaches at Antigua, where they seem to prefer the mud 
flats. 
The largest and to me the most interesting brachyuran that we 
