492 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BTU.I-KTIN. 



When utterly tired 

 out and unable to run 

 further, the crab as- 

 sumes the defensive, 

 with claws raised and 

 eyestalks erect. It 

 strikes furiously at the 

 cap or handkerchief 

 and w h e n tlie fierce 

 nippers have once made 

 fast, the hold is main- 

 tained with tenacity. 



The ghost crabs are 

 nearly white in appear- 

 ance and — for crabs — 

 decidedly ghost-like as 

 they dart about the 

 white beaches in the 

 moonlight. 



Another feature o f 

 animal life in the Hat- 

 teras neighborhood i s 

 the Fiddler Crab, {Uca 



pugilator), which swarms everywhere in the salt 

 marsh areas. They are so numerous that it is 

 almost impossible to avoid treading on their bur- 

 rows. Unlike the ghost crabs of the open 

 sandy sea beaches, the fiddlers are largely vege- 

 tarians, forever carrying bits of algse into their 

 burrows. While the former in excavating, actu- 

 ally throw the sand from the entrance, the lat- 

 ter carry it out some distance. 



How the big "fiddles" of the male are folded 

 down out of the wav, when thev dash under- 



GHOST CRAB CLINGING 



ground, is even more 

 surprising than in the 

 ghost crabs, so small 

 do the burrows seem 

 w h e n compared with 

 the size of the occu- 

 pants. 



An idea of the abund- 

 ance of the fiddlers in 

 some places is indicated 

 in the photograph fur- 

 n i s h e d by Mr. Loril- 

 lard, which shows many 

 thousands of them 

 driven together in a 

 favorable , locality i n 

 Florida. 



There are few sea- 

 side animals of the 

 small sorts about one's 

 feet, which have more 

 lively habits and e n - 

 gaging ways than these 

 two species of crabs. A single hour's observa- 

 tion of them seldom fails to interest any one 

 whether possessed of natural history inclinations 

 or not. Probably nothing better could be found 

 for a first lesson in natural historj' for the young. 



HANDKERCHIEF. 



Labels. — The Aquarium is indebted to the 

 Xew Jersey State Aluseum at Trenton for the 

 loan of numerous electrotypes of turtles and 

 frogs to be used in the illustration of new labels 

 now being printed. 



GHOST CRAB DIGGING A BURROW. 



GHOST CRAB ON THE LOOKOUT. 



