CRUSTACEA OF THE SEASHORE 93 



It has been stated that he will sometimes dispossess 

 the rightful owner of a whelk-shell for this purpose, 

 dragging him out piecemeal and eating him ; but 

 other observers deny that this ever happens, and in 

 most cases, at all events, the Hermit is content to 

 wait until he finds an empty shell of suitable size. 

 After turning this over and exploring the interior 

 with his claws, to satisfy himself that it is un- 

 occupied, he deftly whips the unprotected hinder 

 part of his body into the new habitation, keeping 

 hold of the old one meanwhile, so that he can return 

 to it if the other proves unsuitable. The Hermits 

 are very pugnacious, and fight with one another for 

 the possession of desirable shells, the victor dragging 

 his opponent out and establishing himself in his 

 place. Besides appropriating the shell of a dead 

 Mollusc, many Hermits seem to go into partnership 

 with living animals of various kinds, and some of 

 these associations will be noticed in a later chapter. 

 A number of species adopt other dwellings than 

 molluscan shells, and some tropical Hermits, for 

 instance, are found living in the cavities of water- 

 logged stems of bamboo (Fig. 37) ; while others, 

 relinquishing the advantages of a portable shelter, 

 live in holes in corals or in the canals of living 

 sponges. Although in some of these cases the body 

 is straight, it usually shows traces of its original 

 adaptation to a spiral shell in having no swimmerets 

 on the left side. 



