ABOUT CRABS, 195 



a seeming desertion sometimes occurs, which may coiitimie for several 

 seasons. Shark River is a good crabbing-ground, and yet it is subject 

 to a closing up at the mouth by the washing up of the sea. When 

 this occurs, the water is too fresh, and the crabs may perish. 



The crabbers are now working more systematically. They build 

 pens, or cars, out in the water, the top being opened to the light, and 

 the sides being latticed, or made of laths, which admit the water 

 freely. The bottom is covered w^ith clean stones or coarse gravel. 

 Into these the crabs are put as fast as caught, whether shedding or 

 not ; and, as fast as they shed, they are taken out. 



As mentioned, our edible crab literally backs out of the shell; that 

 is, it comes out at an opening behind. The Zimidus, or horseshoe- 

 crab, acts directly contrariwise. The shell cracks open at the front, 

 and the animal emerges forward, instead of fiom behind, or backward. 

 In fact, the structure of the shell makes this the only possible mode. 

 A few years ago, the officers superintending the building of the fort at 

 Sandy Hook became greatly interested at witnessing this exuviation 

 of the shell of Limulus Polyphemtis^ and they declared that the fel- 

 low was spewing himself out of his mouth ! 



But we have two others to introduce — a brace of queer creatures 

 they are, truly ; and one of them is a positively " crusty customer." 

 Some call him the soldier-crab ; and certainly, if agility and seeming 

 courage make up the martial element, then a valorous little fellow he 

 is. The males have one hand enormously large. This, when closed 

 upon the front of the body, is suggestive of the attitude of a violinist 

 — hence we boys used to call it the fiddler-crab, Fig. 3. The natural- 



Fiddler-Crab. 



ist names it GeJasiimis vocans^ a name highly expressive of its attri- 

 butes. Some have rendered the words " calling crab." This is too 

 far short of their signiticance. The words are intended to indicate 

 both the action of the crab and its effect upon the beholder. "When 

 alarmed, they go scuttling over the mud to their burrows, the males 

 each holding his great claw aloft, and waving it in a manner that 

 looks ludicrously like beckoning, or challenging, and at the same time 



