readily as would any common domestic pet. This 

 fact in itself is relatively unimportant until we 

 realize the circumstance that in order to obtain the 

 proffered food, this creature was obliged to leave 

 the bottom and essay a laborious climb to the sur- 

 face by the way of a lattice-like skeleton of a gor- 

 gonia, or sea-fan, which occupied the middle of 

 the tank. 



It may be pointed out that even this latter fact 

 fails in significance in view of the probability that 

 this spider-crab, having instincts in common with 

 other creatures, was emboldened by the sheer force 

 of hunger. This, I aver, was not the case. In no 

 sense of the word was it starving. It was never in 

 want of a full measure of food. Yet even were it 

 true that in this instance hunger overcame diffi- 

 dence, what shall we make of the following? . . . 



I have already made a passing reference to the 

 cleaning performance of these animals. The dex- 

 terity with which they use their claws in scraping 

 and furbishing their joints and the exposed spaces 

 of their crust, equals that with which they attach 

 to themselves the fragments of their decorative 

 garbs. For many minutes at a time they will go 

 over the margins of their carapace and the surfaces 



[266] 



