400 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITTJTION, 1924 



enemies. It is probable that, in some instances at least, the crab 

 first attacks and then eats the mollusk whose shell he afterwards 

 appropriates. 



Engaged in these investigations, I did not notice, partly concealed 

 as he was by the pathside vegetation, a fig-ure that made me laugh 

 and continue to laugh. As this, the largest of the crabs, crawled out 

 of the herbage into the cleared trail I saw that he was not garbed in 

 appropriate dress. Instead of the outworn shell affected by all his 

 companions, he was girt about by a segment of coconut that covered 

 only i^art of his body, much as the conventional, unclothed tramp is 

 pictured as veiling his nakedness by means of a flour barrel. Indeed, 

 the old crab looked like a disreputable " drunk " as he staggered 

 along in his ancient, broken, and weather-beaten nut shell. It was, 

 of course, no fault of his that the sea gastropods on Beqa did not 

 grow large enough to furnish shelter and to meet the exigencies of 

 adult fashion in dress. However, he kept step with the moving 

 ranks, the ill-clad hermit forming the rear guard, staggering along 

 until he was the only crab in sight. Then with a final wave of his 

 antenna3, as if in jaunty adieu, he rolled his shabby old shell into 

 the leafy debris of the forest and disappeared from my sight. 



In the harbor of Apia lay H. M. S. Laburnum of the New Zealand 

 Navy, and just before we sailed for Tonga there was transferred to 

 us from her a more or less tame, immature, female Fregata aquila. 

 The bird was destined to the Auckland Zoo, and the story ran that 

 some officer on the warship had bought it, a captive of some months 

 standing, from a native of Hull Island in the Phoenix group. He, 

 or rather, if my guess should turn out to be correct, she, soon became 

 an object of considerable interest to the passengers. From her com- 

 paratively lofty perch on the guuAvale of the lifeboat that was set 

 apart as her living room she gazed with unconcern at the admiring 

 crowd below. Many times a day she scrambled from the depths of 

 the lifeboat to preen herself, especially after a shower, and to dry 

 and air her immense wings in the tropical sunshine. The ignomini- 

 ous part of the performance was that it was necessary to tie the bird 

 by one leg to the thwarts, and the restraining rope embarrassed her 

 efforts to perch and spread her wings, owing to her weak legs and 

 her immense wings ; and it certainly was a beautiful sight to see her 

 magnificent wing spread of not less than 6 feet. The officer who 

 had the new arrival in charge certainly did all he could to make 

 Fregata comfortable, provided her Avith a box into which she retired 

 whenever she wished, gave her all the fish she could eat and all the 

 water she could drink. In deference to the positive statements of 

 a passenger, who proclaimed himself an authority on man-of-war 

 birds, she was provided daily with a can of sea water, that being the 

 proper drink for this ocean-going fowl. As this dictum sounded 



