Note 2575 — BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.

Cuvier remarks, that Hardouin is correct in considering this the same as the crab known in France as Bernard the Hermit (our hermit-crab), the Cancer Bernardus of Linnæus, a species of the genus now known as the Pagur. This animal hides its tail and lower extremities in the empty shells of whelks, or other univalves. Cuvier suggests that our author committed a slip of the pen, in using the word oyster here for shell-fish. This is the καρκίνιον, probably, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 15, and De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8; and it is most probable that, as Cuvier states, the real πιννοτήρης of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 4, and B. v. c. 14, was another of the crustacea, of which Pliny speaks under the same name in c. 66. This last is a small crab, that lives in the shells of bivalves, such as mussels, &c., but not when empty. See the Notes to c. 66.