148 A CASE OF MUTUAL ATTACHMENT. 



and it would be a difficult matter to find another such an odd- 

 looking couple. 



Mr. Gosse, in his beautiful " Actinologia Britaunica," gives 

 the following humorous sketch of the ways of this loving pair, as 

 furnished by one of his correspondents : 



" The following scene was witnessed by my much lamented 

 friend, Dr. E. Ball. One of the specimens referred to, attached 

 to the shell of a whelk, Buccinum undatum, which had from 

 its appearance been in all probability just deserted by a 

 Pagurus, was placed in a glass Aquarium ; in a short time, the 

 Anemone left the Buccinum and attached itself to the side of the 

 tank ; it next deserted this position and fixed itself on the side 

 of a large stone that filled the centre of the Aquarium. After 

 the lapse of some weeks a Hermit Crab was dropped into the 

 tank. Well, if these Hermits can't live without hiding themselves 

 in the shell of some poor Mollusc, I think it is equally true 

 that they can't live happy until they hide both themselves and 

 their shells in some quiet little hole in the rock-work of an 

 Aquarium, from whence they can look out ; and, thinking that 

 the superimposed stone-work adds vastly to the strength of their 

 fortifications, experience sundry intense feelings of safety. Be 

 this as it may, the Hermit in question was not long ere ho 

 walked up to a little grotto that was in the rock-work of the 

 Aquarium (quite close to Sagartia parasitica), and after a slight 

 survey, to see that all was right, he turned his left shoulder 

 forward, and " backed in ;" then he began to whisk his antenna? 

 and foot-jaws in a dreadful manner, and looked evidently quite 

 content. I suppose this was a state of things the Parasitica 

 perched on the rock above had long been waiting for ; for it 

 was not long in moving its disc over the top of the small whelk, 

 and before the Crab knew where he was, the big Sagartia had 

 pitched his tent on the roof of the Hermit's house. Where the 

 Hermit Crab goes, there goes the Sagartia : a quiet life it led 

 before, a restless one it has to lead now. But doubtless it knows 

 what's best for it." 



Our friend the Hermit Crab having thus been brought upon 

 the scene, we will now turn to him, and to the very entertaining 

 race to which he belongs. 



The lowest members of the series .are the little Balani, dis- 

 coursed of in a previous chapter. Next in order to the Balani 



