36 
HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. 
of these appendages, which is united with the front. Inner 
antennse longitudinally folded. 
Cancer Pagurus, L. Common Crab . — Carapace granu- 
lated above, latero-anterior margin nine-lobed, the lobes 
close to each other and entire. 
Generally distributed on our coasts. In Scotland it is 
called “Parten.” 
Couch - * says that in Cornwall the female is called “ Bon- 
Crab,” and begins to breed when about three inches across 
the carapace. Among the multitudes of young found be- 
neath stones at low-water mark, Mr. Couch has never seen 
a female. The male is called in Cornwall the “ Stool Crab,” 
and not uncommonly weighs twelve pounds, whilst the fe- 
male is rarely of half that size. Mr. Couch says, “ Although 
this crab is somewhat affected by cold weather, so that it is 
most abundantly caught in summer, its activity is not di- 
minished by it, and some may be obtained at all seasons. 
The fishery, therefore, is more influenced by the danger to 
which the pots, set to take £hem, are exposed in stormy 
weather, than by the absolute scarcity of the crabs. Their 
haunts are along the edges of rocks, in situations varying 
from low-water mark to about twenty fathoms; and the 
* Cornish Fauna, p. 68. 
