50 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



fastening on by the hooks on each side of his tail ; and 

 having thus secured his rear, he scuttles over the sea- 

 bed, a grotesque but philosophic marauder. You ask 

 how it is that this tendency to inhabit the shells of 

 molluscs became organised in the hermit-crab? Either 

 we must suppose that the crab was originally so 

 created, — designed with the express view of inhabiting 

 shells, to which end his structure was arranged ; or — • 

 and this I think the more reasonable supposition — 

 that the hermit-crab originally was furnished with 

 shell-plates for the hinder -part of his body, but that 

 these have now become rudimentary, in consequence 

 of the animal's practice of inhabiting other shells, — 

 a practice originally resorted to, perhaps, as a refuge 

 from more powerful enemies, and now become an 

 organised tendency in the species. 



Be this as it may, the hermit-crab will not live long 

 out of an appropriated shell ; and very ludicrous was 

 the scene I witnessed between two taken from their 

 shells. Selecting them nearly equal in size, I dropped 

 them, " naked as their mother bore them," into a glass 

 vase of sea water. They did not seem comfortable, 

 and carefully avoided each other. I then placed one 

 of the empty shells (first breaking off its spiral point) 

 between them, and at once the contest commenced. 

 One made direct for the shell, poked into it an inquir- 

 ing claw, and having satisfied his cautious mind that 

 all was safe, slipped in his tail with ludicrous agility, 

 and, fastening on by his hooks, scuttled away, rejoic- 

 ing. He was not left long in undisturbed possession. 



