248 KING C11AB8 AND PILL-MAKER CRABS. 



ill size, the hermit crabs are compelled to enter on a fresh 

 career of crime. The ancients were well acquainted with 

 the predaceous habits of this little marauder. 



Crabs are inhabitants of almost all seas. The different 

 kinds vary much in the form of the carapace, or back, which 

 in some is round or nearly so : in others longer than broad ; 

 in some prolonged in front into a kind of beak, etc. ; also in 

 smoothness or roughness, with hairs, excrescences, or spines; 

 in the length of the legs, etc. The King Crab, an inhabitant 

 of tropical seas, is a remarkable species, having a tail which 

 forms a long and powerful dagger-like spine, sometimes- 

 exceeding in length the whole body. Some of these crabs 

 exceed two feet in length, and in the Asiatic islands the 

 spine is often used for pointing arrows; in tropical America 

 the shell is used as a ladle. At Labuan and Sinf!;apore Dr. 

 Collingwood met with a new species of crab, the "Pill- 

 maker." It is a small creature of its kind, many being the 

 size of large peas. Its habit is to take up particles of sand 

 in its claws, deposit them in a groove beneath the thorax, 

 and afterwards eject them as pellets or pills from its mouth, 

 after having extracted what nutriment they may contain. 



The crab (as also the prawn) may be quoted as exercising-^ 

 the virtue of conjugal affection to the highest degree, for 

 the male takes hold of his mate, and never quits her side,, 

 swimming with her, crawling about with her; and if she is 

 forcibly taken away, the faithful animal will seize hold of 

 and endeavor to retain her. 



A traveler mentions a curious example of instinctive 

 stratagem in a crab on the shores of the Pacific, about six 

 inches in circumference, which covers itself with decaying 

 vegetable rubbish, mud, sand, etc., and thus lies in ambush 

 for its passing prey. It maintains a sluggish character until 

 taken into the hand, or otherwise alarmed, when it becomes 

 very active. The spines upon its body to retain the rub- 

 bish, the short but strong claws easily concealed, the eyes 



