CRABS. 



•JO 



The subject of the annexed iUustration is the com- 

 mon slender Spider Crab {Stenorynchns tenuirostris)^ 

 frequently captured on our own coast. Some of these 

 queer gentr}^, near relatives of his, are as prickly as 

 a chestnut husk, and have claws like crooked tobacco- 

 pipe stems. 1^0 cook even in the last stage of insanity 

 could hope to utilize them. 



Then we have the soft-tailed, Soldier, or Hermit 

 Crabs, who, because they are insufficiently clad by 

 nature, seize on the first convenient shell they can 

 discover, and then, by adroitly introducing the point 

 of the tail, slip into it, much as a skilful stage demon 

 vanishes through a vampire trap. Vacant shells are 

 not always selected as mansions ; those with inhabit- 

 ants are not unfrequently taken possession of, when a 

 process of forcible ejectment is had recourse to, and 

 the hapless mollusc is soon gobbled up, and his house 



D 



