ON INSECTS AND MARINE ANIMALS. 105 



the other, and this is a wise arrangement of the 

 Great Creator. Had the two claws been of equal 

 size, both of them as large as the biggest of them, 

 it is evident that they could never have been 

 drawn into the shell. When alarmed, they draw 

 in the smaller claw and close the opening with 

 the larger one, which is thus protected. When 

 the hermit crab grows too large for its shell, it 

 may be observed crawling along a line of empty 

 shells left by the last wave. They then slip 

 their tails out of the old house into a new one, 

 and in this way they will try a number of shells 

 till they find one to their liking. They feed on 

 any kind of putrid offal and garbage, and thus 

 become nature's scavengers in cleansing our 

 coasts. 



And now let me say a few words to you re- 

 specting the prawn, perhaps one of the most 

 exquisitely constructed of all marine creatures. 

 They are, however, not to be judged of as you 

 may see them boiled and dead iji Mr. Hayllar's 

 well frequented shop; but in a glass-case called 

 an aquarium, if they are well supplied with 

 proper food and fresh sea- water, they will appear 

 the merriest and happiest creatures possible. 

 But it is to the way in which they get rid, once 



