Social Life in the Salt-JVater JForld 25 



stands motionless near the edge of the water. The 

 fiddler crabs, in common with the majority of wild 

 creatures, recognize only moving objects, and it Is not 

 long before they once more emerge from their hiding 

 places and wander toward the water. 



But see what is happening around the bird. Rising 

 out of the smooth sand other fiddler crabs can be seen 

 stealthily and warily making their appearance. Unless 

 you are in the secret you would think that these are 

 members of the mud-bank colony which had, of neces- 

 sity, taken refuge in the sand. But they are, in fact, 

 entirely different Individuals. This region abounds 

 with two species of fiddler crabs whose habits are com- 

 pletely dissimilar. One {Uca pugilator), that which 

 first engaged our attention, lives only in the muddy soil 

 peculiar to the thatch-grass meadows. It is of a dark 

 slaty gray — somewhat like the soil In which It lives — 

 except In the case of the male whose great claw, oft- 

 times much larger than the rest of the body, is of a 

 bright yellow hue. The other species {Uca minax) 

 makes its home in the sand, where each crab occupies 

 a burrow of only a few inches in depth. This fiddler 

 crab Is nearly alike In shape with the mud dweller. 

 But In color, as well as in Its general habits. It is far 

 more attractive than its brethren of the muddy banks. 

 However, as a later chapter will be devoted to this 

 Interesting animal, we need not further consider It 

 here. Let it suffice by saying that it is this species 

 which we find making its appearance near the motion- 

 less heron. 



Suddenly the bird plunges Its long beak Into the 

 water, pulls out a colling sandworm, and with a short 



