154 GAMINS OP THE AQUARIUM. 



sparring and scuffling with each other, and scrambling over one 

 another's backs, or stepping daintily about like superfine dandies 

 picking their way in a dirty road. Not even the Anemones, 

 then in the first flush of their popularity, attracted more eager at- 

 tention than these strange yet familiar forms, and great was the 

 loss to the Fish House when this feature of the exhibition could 

 no longer be maintained. 



Amongst the most hardy of the Crustacea, and the best 

 adapted therefore for the Aquarium, are the small Swimming 

 Crabs (Portunidce) which have dilated, oar-like feet, by means of 

 which they are enabled to perform a sort of natatory movement 

 which gives them a very odd appearance. This is best seen 

 at feeding-time, when they pursue each other for the morsels 

 of food, and rush about over the blocks of stone, making the 

 most extraordinary flying or rather swimming leaps, striking 

 out with their feet the while in a very grotesque fashion. 

 These little Crabs are the gamins of the Aquarium, and for cool 

 impudence and clever trickery have no equals. What with 

 their squabbles with one another, and their raids upon the rest of 

 the community, they form a perpetual source of amusement. They 

 rob the Anemones of their food in the most barefaced manner 

 imaginable, taking it out of their very mouths, and even when it 

 has all but disappeared from view. In the winter they very 

 commonly bury themselves in the sand or gravel at the bottom 

 of the tank, usually under some overhanging ledge of stone, and 

 leaving only the front edge of the carapace with the eyes and the 

 ever-jerking antennas above the surface. In this condition they 

 will frequently remain for several days without stirring a limb, 

 although in warm weather they are most troublesomely active. 

 But even during these sluggish seasons a morsel of oyster dropped 

 into the tank will speedily rouse them, for in some way or other 

 they quickly become aware of its presence, and search about until 

 they find it. And then should it so happen that two of them 

 come upon the prize at the same moment, the battle that ensues is 

 something to see such fencing and sparring, and fierce tussles 

 together as would delight the heart of Lord Palmerston himself. 



One of the most interesting circumstances in the economy of 

 these animals is the periodical moulting or throwing off of the 

 shelly armature in which they are encased. In all the Crustacea 

 alike these moults regularly take place at longer or shorter in- 



