140 The Cocos-Nut Crab. 



of, and likewise of adaptation in structure between 

 two objects apparently so remote from each other 

 in the scheme of nature as a crab and a cocoanut- 

 tree." He further tells us that these crabs visit 

 the sea every night, no doubt for the purpose of 

 moistening their branchiae; that the young are 

 hatched and live for some time on the coast; and 

 that they " inhabit deep burrows, which they 

 excavate beneath the roots of the cocoanut trees, 

 and here they accumulate surprising quantities of 

 the picked fibres of the cocoanut-husk, on which 

 they rest as on a bed. The Malays sometimes take 

 advantage of their labour by collecting the coarse 

 fibrous substance and using it as junk." 



These crabs are alleged by the natives to climb 

 cocoanut-trees in the night to get the cocoanuts 

 a story which was believed by both Linnaeus and 

 Cuvier, but of which Darwin wrote, " 1 very much 

 doubt the possibility of this." However, Cuming, 

 who found them " sufficiently abundant" in Lord 

 Hood's Island in the Pacific, stated that they 

 climbed Pandanus odoratissimus the Screw-pine 

 for the purpose of feeding on the small nuts 

 that grow on it, and that he had seen them in the 

 trees; and, no doubt, some species of Anomoura 

 are great climbers. However this may be, there 

 is little doubt that the only cocoanuts they eat are 

 those which have fallen to the ground. Cuming 

 also tells us that " when he met them in his road 

 they set themselves up in a threatening attitude, 

 and then retreated backwards, making, both at 



