THEIR MANNERS. 189 



of the little hand are used to pick off adhering matters 

 that cannot be removed by brushing. Then having done 

 his washing, he cleans his brushes with his mouth, and 

 snugly folds them up, and packs them away in their 

 groove till he wants them again. Yet with all this, he 

 remains, as I said at first, a dirty subject notwithstanding. 



A curious chapter in the history of this little crea- 

 ture, which I have put on record elsewhere, 1 is, I think, 

 so very instructive, that I may venture to repeat some 

 parts of it here. Let me premise that the Crab habi- 

 tually lives under stones, a habit for which the remark- 

 able flatness and thinness of all its parts adapts it ; he 

 has somewhat of the appearance of having been crushed 

 flat by the pressure of the stone under which he lives. 

 He does not wander much to seek his food, but expects 

 it to be brought to him, he making provision for its 

 conveyance. 



The organs which he employs for this end are the 

 outer foot-jaws or pedipalps, which are of unusual 

 length, and are fringed with incurving hairs. Watch- 

 ing a Flat-crab beneath a stone close to the side of my 

 tank, I noticed that his long antennae were continually 

 flirted about ; these are doubtless sensitive organs of 

 touch, or some analogous sense, which inform the 

 animal of the presence, and perhaps of the nature, of 



1 The Aquarium.- 2d Ed. uo. 37-45. 



