444 
THE HAIRY CRAB. 
escape, because the opening is guarded by an inverted cone of osiers, like the entrance to a 
common wire mouse-trap, so that the elastic sticks yield to the expected prey while passing 
downwards, but effectually prevent all up- 
ward movement. 
The Edible Crab of Europe resembles 
greatly the Cancer sayi of New England 
shores, north of Cape Cod. 
In many external points the 2Ethra re- 
sembles the domed crab, which has already 
been described on page 443. Like that being, 
the carapace is very wide, flat, and expanded 
at the edges. The limbs, too, are compara- 
tively short, and can be concealed under the 
shell, which, from its hilly surface, covered 
with tubercles, and the irregular, notched, 
and ridged carapace, has but little of the 
cancerine aspect. Zoologists of the present 
day, however, have placed it in the same family with the edible crab. The claw-feet, with 
their forceps, are very like those of the parthenope, but are not so proportionately large, and 
their surfaces are concave, so as to fit into the trunk. The eyes are very small, and their 
orbits nearly circular. 
All the species of this genus inhabit the East Indian and African seas. Large specimens 
attain a length of three, and a width of four and a half inches. 
We still have to describe three more curious examples of this large family, each being 
notable for some peculiarity of form or habit. 
Montagu’s Crab belongs to a genus which finds several European representatives. It 
is a flat-bodied and strongly-made creature, very restless in disposition, and with a curi- 
ous fondness for getting under stones, and turning them over ; probably for the sake of 
obtaining a meal from the smaller marine animals that are accustomed to shelter them- 
selves in such localities. 
The shelly covering of this crab is remarkably strong and flinty, and the muscular power 
of the claws is gigantic, when the small size of the creature is taken into consideration. It is 
a tolerably common species on several European coasts, appearing to be peculiarly plentiful 
on the southern side of England. 
The Red-spotted .ZEgle is a curiously marked crab, the carapace being divided into a 
number of partitions, in which is a certain, though not very definite regularity. It inhabits 
the warmer seas. The Mauritius and the Philippines are favored haunts of the JEgle. The 
color is red and whitish spotted. 
The Toothed Perimela is our last example of this family. 
The name of Toothed Perimela is given to this species in allusion to the shape of the cara- 
pace, which has the front edge rather flattened, and cut into a series of four or five strong 
teeth, like those of a saw. The surface of the carapace is smooth, and is swollen into several 
decided projections, something like those softly rounded hills called by the French “ mame - 
Ions.” Over the region of the liver, the carapace is concave. 
Nearly allied to the preceding species is the Hairy Crab ( Pilumnus Mrtellus ), a creat- 
ure which derives its popular name from the curious hairy covering with which it is deco- 
rated. The convex carapace is studded more or less thickly with longish hairs, and the four 
hinder pairs of legs are also protected in the same manner. This crab is not a very common 
one, and is mostly found on the northern coasts of Europe. It seems to prefer moderately 
deep water, fifteen fathoms being the usual depth at which it is captured. 
It may be easily known by the following characteristics : On the front edge of the carapace 
are arranged four spines set in the same line, and the front is divided by a deep notch down 
the middle. The claw-legs of this species are always unequal in size, and the first joint of the 
outer pair of antenna} is short. The ground-color of the Hairy Crab is chestnut-brown, with 
EDIBLE CRAB . — Cancer pagurus. 
