66 Proceedings, 



appear and take it from our fingers, or crawl over them in 

 searcli of more. If a piece be dropped to the bottom of the 

 pool, the Green Crabs and Hermit Crabs will soon be fighting 

 for it. The former represent the tribe which we usually 

 call Crabs having their tails turned under them, and the 

 latter those with soft tails, which they protect by thrusting 

 them into empty shells, such as the Whelk or Periwinkle. 



The aquarium is, however, the best place to study some of 

 their habits, and the Green Crabs, who are as full of fun as 

 Monkeys, are very easily kept. The Hermit Crabs also live 

 well in an aquarium, and are very amusing. He is said to 

 have had formerly a hard, shelly tail, like a Lobster, which 

 has degenerated by being always thrust into a shell. However 

 this may be, he behaves as though he were ashamed of it, 

 and yet he can be made to show it almost as often as we like. 

 If an empty Whelk-shell is dropped into the aquarium, he 

 will examine it inside and out, turn it round and round the 

 right way to let out the air, then placing his legs on the 

 mouth of each shell, he vaults from one into the other so 

 quickly that one can hardly catch a glimpse of his tail. 



The common Hermit Crab has very often a worm living 

 with him in his shell, who shares all his food, sometimes 

 even snatching it out of his mouth. Another kind has nearly 

 always an Anemone fixed to the outside of his shell. It is 

 easy to see the advantage which the worm and Anemone 

 derive from this companionship, but not why the Crab allows 

 it, unless he is naturally sociable and likes company. One 

 Hermit in my aquarium was very well-behaved for some 

 months, until one day I gave to an Anemone (the only other 

 occupant of the aquarium) a piece of meat, without giving 

 any to him. As soon as he discovered this he tried to pull it 

 away, but, not succeeding, he pinched and scratched the 

 Anemone till I gave him a piece of meat also. From that 

 time he took every opportunity of annoying the Anemone, 

 which crawled to the top of the water to get out of his way. 

 He tried to reach him by climbing on a piece of pumice-stone 

 floating in the aquarium, but, failing generally in this, he 

 pushed the pumice-stone so as to jam the Anemone between 



