ITS LIFE AND DEATH. 155 



and the action of the feet is repeated. The process is 

 continued until the hinder parts are covered, and the 

 muzzle alone is visible, with the two claws. Thus it 

 sits quite still, reminding one of a toad, the hroad 

 triangular pedipalps that fit so close occasionally 

 opening, like the folding- doors of a tiny cabinet, and 

 allowing the palpi to be thrust out, to wipe the minute 

 eyes. The face, when examined with a lens through 

 the glass walls of the Aquarium, has a most funny 

 expression, being singularly like that of an ancient 

 man. 



Like many marine animals, the Ebalia uses the 

 hours of night as its chief season of activity. As long 

 as the candles are in the room, it remains pretty still, 

 but as soon as darkness reigns it sets out on its 

 travels. Not indeed with the railway pace of some 

 of its fellows, does our little ancient travel ; he is but 

 a " slow coach ;" but he gropes about among the 

 pebbles, and is usually found the next morning, buried 

 at some distance from the point where the previous 

 evening had left him. Fortunately his movements 

 are easily traced ; for the tall ventricose parasite which 

 he carries on his back cannot easily be concealed, and 

 this betrays the secret of his hiding-place. 



I kept my little prisoner for five or six weeks ; and 

 he might have survived an indefinite time, but for 

 the \aolence of a powerful neighbour. One morning 

 I saw his shell and limbs broken to fragments, and 

 emptied of all the soft parts. More than suspicion 

 rested on the savage Violet Fiddler [Portunus ])uber)^ 

 whose biography I shall presently record. The last 

 occasion on which I had seen my little Ebalia alive 



