THE HERMIT-CRAB. 315 
It has been found possible to keep something like peace among 
many hermits in the same reservoir ; but this was due, not to any 
love of harmony in the creatures themselves, but only because the 
cunningly contrived barricades at the apertures of their abodes so 
well sustain the attack of an aggressor, that experience has taught 
them that the only hope of conquest is when the attacked is not 
in his fortress. In reality, the hermits are most quarrelsome; two 
of them cannot meet without exhibiting signs of bitter hostility. 
They each extend their claws, and try to find a weak point in the 
other’s barricade; the reconnoitre generally proving to each that 
an attack would be impracticable, they unwillingly withdraw. 
But often such passages of arms as are depicted in Plate XIV. 
may be witnessed ; the claws of the two combatants are extended 
and the pincers open and shut snappishly; frequently they are 
locked in each other’s embrace and roll over, generally, however, 
they are more frightened than hurt. Mr. Gosse once witnessed 
a contest which did not end so harmlessly. A hermit-crab met 
a brother hermit who was better lodged than himself in a more 
commodious, and altogether more desirable shell; in an instant, 
before the hapless crab could throw up his barricades, he was 
seized by the head, and with a violent jerk, dislodged and thrown 
on the sand, and with no less rapidity did the victor enter the 
coveted shell and take possession. Perhaps the combativeness of 
the hermits is moré excusable than that of men, for while the 
lords of creation destroy each other frequently for no assignable 
reason, the crabs at least fight for a house. 
A pretty species of sea anemone (Adamsia palliata) loves 
to live with the hermit-crab, and exhibits sympathies with this 
Ishmaelite of the shore, quite inexplicable. In an aquarium the 
anemone invariably attaches itself to the shell which harbours a 
crustacean, and it is almost a rule, that where the hermit is, there 
is its friend the zoophyte. These two creatures seem to live in 
perfect and intelligent harmony, and Mr. Gosse’s observations cer- 
tainly go far to establish between them a reciprocal friendship. 
This intelligent observer watched the proceedings of a hermit who 
required a new habitation. Having fixed upon a shell in which 
to take up his new abode, he returned to the old home, and with 
