DECAPODA. 
375 
in, when to my surprise they were not only living, but able to move about 
as actively as ever. Wishing to verify the remembrance of this boyish 
prank, I took some of the crabs in the summer of 1837, threw a piece of 
sea-weed on them, and buried them to the depth of twelve or fourteen 
inches, the soil above them, being closely beaten down. When leaving 
the country seventeen days afterwards I found them living, and one in- 
dividual was so brisk that he caught the spade in his claws. I have had 
no opportunity of ascertaining what is the limit of the time they would 
live under such circumstances.” 
When at the Isle of Wight in the summer of 1841, I remarked this to 
be the most common crab on all parts of the coast. At Yentnor it was 
flung from the crab-pots as useless. 
I don’t know whether the C. Mcenas be found in the Adriatic Sea, but 
a crab which I saw under one of the bridges at Venice seemed to be this 
species. I remarked several crab-pots set at the sea or eastern entrance 
of one of the canals here where the bottom is oozy. 
Genus Portumnus. 
P. variegatus , Leach, 
Is occasionally found thrown ashore on extensive sandy beaches. I have 
seen examples from Macgilligan and Portrush on the northern, and Port- 
marnock on the eastern coast. Leach mentions this as “ the most com- 
mon species of the Malacostracous animals that inhabit oUr coasts,” and 
that “ it is found thrown on all the sandy shores of Great Britain in great 
abundance, especially during storms.” On the Irish coast it is quite a 
local species. In the course of dredging in the open sea off Down, in the 
Loughs of Strangford and Belfast, a single example only of this species 
has occurred, either to my friends or to myself. In dredging on the Con- 
naught coast, and about Dublin Bay on the opposite side of the island, I 
never saw this species brought up — some of the localities dredged over 
were sandy and off extensive beaches of the same nature. After severe 
storms chiefly, we find it cast ashore upon the sand. Corystes Cassiveluunus 
is much more generally distributed on the sandy coasts of Ireland than 
Portumnus variegatus. 
July 25, 1837. — Portumnus variegatus {Sept, a second specimen obtained), 
Newcastle, Co. Down. 
Dec., 1851. — I received a specimen from Bartra Island, Killala Bay, 
from Mr. Robert Warren, jun. 
Genus Portunus. 
P. puber , Leach. 
Of this species, the velvet crab of British authors — noticed by Templeton 
and J. V. Thompson as Irish — I have seen examples from all quarters of 
the coast. Dr. J. L. Drummond informs me that it is taken commonly at 
Bangor (Co. Down) by boys, who find it lurking under large stones in 
rocky pools at low-water. Between tide-marks we found it common at 
Lahinch. Dr. Ball states that at Youghal, where the species grows to a 
large size, and is known by the name of Kerry Witch, it is caught along 
with Carcinus Mcenas, with fish-entrails used as bait. 
Under stones on beach, Tory Island, Mr. Hyndman. 
P. Depurator, Leach. 
From Templeton noting this crab merely as “found on the sands at 
Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal, July 13, 1815,” and from the specimen named 
