68 
A OOBNISH: PATJWA. 
the form of its carapace, .rhieh is Lyre-shaped, and is as long as 
It 18 broad. ° 
^ PMyomjchus, 
t I douht if he has made out more than a specific separation, 
even if he has good evidence of that. 
PoBTiJMNtTS lATiPKS. — Wide Foot. — Pennant. 
Platyonyehus latipes— Hkt. des Crust, t \ « 436 ■ 
Couchs Co-rnish Fanna, p. ‘ll. ’ 
Portumnus variegatus— ZwA, Petl, Hist Stalk-Fijed Crust 
p. 85. 
It is found at low water mark on sandy beaches, in many 
iwtt™ ““““ “ 
Gen-us, Polybius. — Leach. 
Carapace nearly circular, much depressed, anterior margin 
dentated, posterior pair of legs having the tei-minal joint flattened 
tor swimming. 
Polybius UEusLowii.-Nipper or Henslow’s Swimming Crah.- 
Leaeh, Malae. Brit, i. 1, 9; Milne Fdwards, Hist des Crust, 
t. 1, p. 439. ' 
‘‘This, more than any of the others, is a swimming crab ; for 
whilst the other British species of this family are only able to 
shoot themselves along from one low prominence to another the 
nipper crab, as our fishermen term it, mounts to the surface 
over the deepest water, in pursuit of its prey, among which are 
numbered the most actwe fishes, as the Mackerel and Panning 
loUoek the skin of which it pierces with its sharp pincers keen- 
ing its hold until the terrified victim becomes exhausted’ We 
are witnesses to this curious method of obtaining food in the 
summer only, at which season the fishermen’s nets intercept them 
and their prey together; and it is probable that, in colder 
weather, they keep at the bottom in deep water, from which, 
however, I have never seen them brought in the stomachs of 
fashes so far as my observation extends. It is only or chieflv the 
male that pimsues this actively predaceous existence ; but that 
lor a time they also remain quietly at the bottom, appears from 
the fact that while, for the most part, the smooth and flattened 
carapace is clean, I have occasionally seen it covered with small 
corallines. (Sertularia).” 
