LAND CRABS. ANOMOUROUS DECAPODS; HERMIT CRABS. 251 



of Annona. It also devours carrion ; and when burying-grounds 

 are situated in the vicinity of its dwelling-place, will dig down 

 into the graves to get at the bodies. This species is looked upon 

 as a great delicacy in the West Indies. It is caught in rat-traps, 

 and fattened, after its capture, with broken victuals. Some 

 of the Land-Crabs are remarkable for the inequality in the size 

 of their claws ; the larger is used to close up the mouth of the 

 burrows ; and it is sometimes held up in a beckoning attitude, 

 whence these Crabs have acquired the name of Calling-Crabs. 

 Nearly allied to these, which are all inhabitants of tropical re- 

 gions, are some small native species, termed Pea-Crabs, which 

 reside, at least during a part of the year, inside various bivalve 

 shells, such as Mussels, &c. The ancients believed that the Pea- 

 Crab lives on the best terms with the inhabitant of the shell in 

 which it is found ; and that it not only warns it of danger, but 

 goes abroad to cater for it : this, however, is an absurd fiction. 



861. The Decapods of the section ANOMOURA are interme- 

 diate between the short-tailed Crabs and the Long-tailed Lob- 

 sters and Cray-fish ; not having the abdomen reduced to the 

 almost rudimentary state, which it presents in the former ; nor 

 converted into a powerful organ for swimming, as in the 

 latter (Fig. 585). There is nearly always a pair of appendages 

 attached to its last segment ; and these have, in some instances, 

 important uses. This section includes the Hippa (Fig. 568) and 

 its allies, constituting the family HIPPID^E ; and also the family 

 PAGURID^E, or Hermit- Crabs, which are very peculiar as to both 

 their conformation and their hubits. The tail, or post-abdomen, 

 is of large size, but its envelope is little else than a membran- 

 ous bag, entirely unpossessed of the usual hardness of the Crus- 

 taceous integument, and presenting no division into segments. 

 The thorax itself is not very firm ; and it is only on the claws, 

 which are of large size, that we find the true calcareous en- 

 velope. For the protection of their soft tails, the Paguridce re- 

 sort to various artificial methods. Many of them seek univalve 

 shells, in which they take up their abodes ; attaching them- 

 selves to their interior by a sucker, with which the tail is furnish- 

 ed at its extremity, and also holding by the three pairs of 



