ii6 Dwellers of the Sea and Shore 



tude for a predatory life to the less alert existence of 

 a scavenger has lost him his sagacity. 



I am now obliged to make a painful admission. In 

 summing up all the evidence, it is only too apparent that 

 the hermit crab is an animal which long ago reached 

 its highest development, and is now on the decline. In 

 a v/ord, the hermit crab is a degenerate. 



