HERMIT AND SOLDIER CRABS. 2 55 



so called from its occupying an empty shell, as a 

 hermit would his cave. This crustacean is forced to 

 this singular habit by the softness of its abdomen, 

 which does not secrete a hard crust, and therefore 



Fig. 187. 



Hermit Crab (Pagurus JBernharJus). 



requires such protection as an empty whelk-shell will 

 afford. Nothing on earth exceeds the shamefacedness 

 of a hermit crab deprived of its shell not even a 

 bather whose clothes have been stolen ! When per- 

 fectly accommodated with an empty shell, the hermit 

 crab is most suspicious and wary. It regards every- 

 thing as an enemy ; and even when one of its own 

 kind approaches, you will see it move away, or draw 

 itself within its cave, and close the aperture by means 

 of its large right claw, which is bigger than the other 

 for the purpose. Being as warlike as they are sus- 

 picious, a good ma'jy fights come off in the tanks 

 between them, insomuch that this species is also called 

 the " soldier crab." The somewhat vulgar practice is 

 now followed of introducing highly-coloured empty 



