CRUSTACEANS female is the rule throughout the Malacostraca. Williamson points out that Frank Buckland was mistaken in supposing that soft crabs always contained a great deal of water, for ' the body fluid of the crab is not water ; it is richly albuminous : on exposure to air for a little time it becomes black ; and if a quantity of it is treated with picro-sulphuric acid it coagulates into a solid mass.' ' In the family Cancridae to which the great eatable crab belongs is placed a very different looking and somewhat anomalous form, Pirimela denticulata (Montagu). Kent has the credit of having introduced this pretty little species to science, though the honour of first naming it belongs to the celebrated Devonshire naturalist. Montagu called it Cancer denticulatus, and together with a characteristic figure supplied an account of much merit considering the date at which it was com- posed. He described it as follows : — ' Thorax broad before, narrow behind, rugged with spines and tubercles, the margin continued in one series of subserrated denticulations : the front between the eyes is quin- quedentate, the middle spine the longest : the sides are also quinque- dentate, besides a small process over each eye : eyes prominent : antennae obscure ; the arms not longer than the body, angulated, or ridged longitudinally with blunt spines at the top of the middle joint ; fangs angulated and denticulated ; the legs are also angulated ; claws subulate : tail narrow, regularly tapering. Length three-quarters of an inch, breadth rather more. This singular species of crab was sent to me, amongst a variety of British Cancri, by my late worthy friend Mr. Boys, as the produce of the coast of Sandwich.' ^ It should be understood that by the ' fangs ' are intended the thumb and finger of the chelipeds or front legs, the middle joints of which are spoken of as ' arms.' The subulate claws are the awl-shaped fingers or terminal joints of the walking legs. It is to be lamented that Montagu only described two out of the various ' Cancri ' which his friend sent him as products of this county. Besides the extreme difference of size between the great C. pagurus and the little Pirimela, it will be noticed that the former has each antero- lateral border of the carapace divided into nine lobes, while in the latter each, by a much more common arrangement, is cut into five teeth. In the family which includes them both, the folding of the little first antennae is longitudinal, but in the next two families it is transverse or very oblique. Of the Xanthids one representative is reported from Dover, where, it is said, Pilumnus hirtellus (Linn.) may be found ' under stones below Shakespere's and Abbot's Cliffs.' ' This is a hairy little species having the ' front,' that is the border between the orbits, chiefly composed of two broad finely denticulate lobes. Each antero-lateral margin of the carapace has five teeth, but the tooth adjoining the orbit is very small. 1 Fishery Board for Scotland, iSth Annual Report, pt. 3, 105. 2 Trans. Linn. Soc. London, ix. 87, pi. 2, fig. 2 (paper read 1805, published 1808). 3 Handbook to Dover, p. 87. As all the references to this useful guide will be concerned with pages 87, 88, this notice will perhaps suffice once for all. 239
