CRUSTACEA AND INSECTS. 387 



ment. Some fine pearls have occasionally been found, 

 but actual pearl fishery has as yet not commenced on 

 a large scale; and the Fijians in some of the islands 

 act on the idea, that in order to preserve these trea- 

 sures they must be boiled. The Davui (Triton variega- 

 tus, Lamk.) is made into horns and trumpets, invari- 

 ably found in all larger canoes. Ai Kaki or Ai Koi, a 

 species of Dolium, is used for scraping, as is also another 

 univalve, the Tuasa or Ai Walui. Several kinds of oysters 

 are eaten, and a fresh-water Cyrena is made into soup. 



Crustaceous animals are well represented. Shrimps, 

 prawns, crayfish, lobsters, and crabs, are plentiful and 

 esteemed as food by the natives. In some of the smaller 

 islands, for instance Qelebevu and Vatuvara, a very large 

 kind of land crab, called " Ugavule " (probably Birqos 

 latro, and the same of which C. Darwin speaks in his 

 c Journal of a Naturalist '), is common. Being fierce 

 and strong, it is taken with some difficulty when on 

 the ground, and throws earth and stones into the face 

 of its pursuers. It climbs the highest cocoa-nut trees, 

 and not only pierces the nuts, but removes the husk 

 from the old nuts and breaks them, in order to get at 

 the flesh. When up a tree, the natives take a bundle 

 of grass and bind it round the body of the tree, about 

 halfway up. The Ugavule comes down backwards, 

 and when it gets to the grass it fancies the bottom 

 has been reached, and, relinquishing its hold on the 

 tree, falls twenty or thirty feet, and thus stunned is 

 easily captured. 



The insect tribe is very numerous, both in species and 

 individuals. Mosquitoes (Namu) are very troublesome 



2 C 2 



