Chap, xiii.] TERRESTRIAL HERMIT CRABS. 263 



two feet and a half in length. It has a pouched throat with a 

 cross fold. All the scales of the body are keeled, and it has 

 a low crest of triangular scales on the neck.* 



In all parts of the Fijis which I visited, I met with abun- 

 dance of a land-inhabiting Hermit Crab of the genus Cccnohita, 

 allied to the well-known crab Birgus latro of the Philippines 

 and elsewhere, which feeds on cocoanuts. Birgus latro is 

 apparently a Hermit Crab, which has given up using a shell 

 to protect itself, because it has grown too large to be contained 

 by any shell. It has therefore developed, as a substitute, a 

 hardened covering to the hinder part of its body, which was, 

 no doubt, soft, as in other Hermit Crabs, when it wore a shell. 

 The Hermit Crabs of the genus Canobita are smaller, and 

 always wear shells like their marine congeners. 



On one small coral island, off the mouth of the Wai Levu, 

 the beds of the littoral Convolvulus {Ipomxd) were swarming 

 with these air-breathing Hermit Crabs, carrying about with 

 them all kinds of shells in the hot sunshine. In Kandavu 

 they climb the hills and go far inland, bearing their shells with 

 them, as do the terrestrial Paguridcc in St. Thomas and other 

 West Indian islands. 



On the shores of Wokan Island, in the Aru group, a small 

 species of Ccetiobita was extremely abundant on the stones and 

 about the dry rocks above tide-mark. When alarmed the 

 animals withdraw their claws and heads suddenly into their 

 shells, and drop off their support as if feigning death. In one 

 place at Aru I came upon such numbers of them, that their 

 shells made quite a distinct slight rattling noise, as a drove of 

 them let go their hold in alarm, and their shells fell amongst 

 the stones. 



But what has impressed most deeply upon my memory the 

 fact of the existence of these terrestrial Hermit Crabs, was a 

 surprise which I encountered at the Admiralty Islands. When 

 collecting plants there, I thought I saw a fine large Land Snail 

 resting on one of the topmost twigs of a bush about four feet 

 in height. I grasped the specimen, but instead of feeling the 

 slimy snail's body, I got a very unpleasant bite from a large 

 Hermit Crab, and I then saw that the shell was a marine one 

 ( Turbo). 



The genus Ca-nobiia has one of its nippers especially stout 

 and powerful. In the Admiralty Islands a species gnaws the 

 roots of one of the littoral trees {CEhrocarpus ovaliformis). I 

 have seen 20 or 30 of these crabs gnawing at one long wound 

 made by them in a root, apparently feeding on an exuding gum. 



* For a description of this lizard, by Dr. Gunther, see " Proc. Zoo). 

 See. 1S69," p. 189, PI. XXV. 



