A NATURALIST. 83 



claim credit for ascertaining the truth or inaccuracies of 

 a suggestion, but with a view of inviting the reader to do 

 the same in all cases of doubt. Where it is possible to 

 refer to nature for the actual condition of facts, learned 

 authorities give me no uneasiness. If I find that the 

 structure bears out their opinions, it is more satisfactory ; 

 when it convicts them of absurdity, it saves much fruit, 

 less reading, as well as the trouble of shaking off preju- 

 dices. 



The first time my attention was called to the extreme 

 acuteness of sight possessed by these animals, was during 

 a walk along the flats of Long Island, reaching to- 

 wards Governor's Island in New York. A vast number 

 of the small land crabs, called fiddlers by the boys (gecar- 

 cinus,) occupy burrows or caves dug in the marshy soil, 

 whence they come out and go for some distance, either 

 in search of food or to sun themselves. Long before I 

 approached close enough to see their forms with distinct- 

 ness, they were scampering towards their holes, into 

 which they plunged with a tolerable certainty of escape; 

 these retreats being of considerable depth, and often com- 

 municating with each other, as well as nearly filled with 

 water. On endeavouring cautiously to approach some 

 others, it was quite amusing to observe their vigilance ; 

 to see them slowly change position, and from lying ex- 

 tended in the sun, beginning to gather themselves up for 

 a start should it prove necessary ; at length standing up 

 as it were on tiptoe, and raising their pedunculated eyes 



