My dear Sir

One word to tell you that a little time since—My Boys saw two crabs, which evidently are Portunus puber and Carcinas Mænas fighting on the Shore, the Portunus which they call “the devil crab” seized the other, threw it on its back, & then tore off every limb of the Carcinus successively & left the poor limbless wretch to perish—¹ I have occasionally seen evidence of this by occasionally finding bodies of living carcini without any legs for which I could not account until now— I thought that you might like to know this fact, but it must not trouble you to reply—