The Cocos~Nut Grab. 139 



we overheard at the Zoo as being exactly the tint 

 of a pickling cabbage. Its appearance is far from 

 prepossessing ; indeed it is no exaggeration to say 

 that it is as evil-looking and uncanny a creature as 

 can be found in the Gardens. 



Darwin,, who describes these crabs as being 

 found on coral islands, saw them in large numbers 

 on Keeling Island, and the following are extracts 

 from his extremely interesting account of them. 

 He says: "Keeling Island has no quadruped 

 excepting the pig, and no vegetable in quantity 

 except the cocoanut. On it the pigs, which are 

 loaded with fat, almost entirely subsist, as likewise 

 do the poultry and ducks. Even a huge land- 

 crab is furnished by nature with a curious instinct 

 and form of legs to open and feed upon this same 

 fruit. It is very common on all parts of the dry 

 land, and grows to a monstrous size. . ... . It 



would at first be thought quite impossible for a 

 crab to open a strong cocoanut covered with the 

 husk; but Mr. Leisk, one of the two British 

 residents, assures me he has repeatedly seen the 

 operation effected. The crab begins by tearing 

 the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that end 

 under which the eyeholes are situated. When this 

 is completed the crab commences hammering with 

 its heavy claws on one of those eyeholes till an 

 opening is made ; then, turning round its body, by 

 the aid of its posterior pair of narrow pincers it 

 extracts the white albuminous substance. I think 

 this is as curious a case of instinct as I ever beard 



