CRUSTACEANS. 495 



animals. When introduced into an aquarium, it has sometimes thrown 

 it into the utmost disorder by its insatiable rapacity. It has been 

 possible sometimes to preserve harmony among many individuals in- 

 habiting the same reservoir; but this has been owing rather to 

 the impossibility of their attacking each other, in consequence of 

 cunningly-devised barricades, than to their mildness of character or 

 love of their neighbour. These animals, in short, are very quarrel- 

 some. Two hermits cannot meet without showing hostility ; each 

 extends his long pincers, and seems to try to touch the other, much 

 as a spider does when it seeks to seize a fly on its most vulnerable 

 side ; but each, finding the other armed in proof, and perfectly pro- 

 tected, though eager to fight, usually adopts the better part of valour, 

 and prudently withdraws. They often have true passages of arms, 

 nevertheless, in which claws are spread out, and displayed in the 

 most threatening manner ; the two adversaries tumbling head over 

 heels, and rolling one upon the other, but they get more frightened 

 than hurt. Nevertheless, Mr. Gosse once witnessed a struggle which 

 had a more tragic end. A hermit crab met a brother Bernhard 

 pleasantly lodged in a shell much more spacious than his own. He 

 seized it by the head with his powerful claws, tore it from its asylum 

 with the speed of lightning, and took its place not less promptly, 

 leaving the dispossessed unfortunate struggling on the sand in con- 

 vulsions of agony. " Our battles," says Charles Bonnet, " have rarely 

 such important objects in view : they fight each other for a 

 house." 



A pretty little zoophyte, the Cloak Anemone (Adamsia palliata\ loves 

 to live with the hermit, and exhibits sympathies almost inexplicable. 

 In aquariums this anemone attaches itself almost always to the shell 

 which serves as the dwelling of the Crustacean ; and it may be looked 

 upon as certain that where the hermit is there will the anemone be 

 found. These two creatures seem to live in perfect and intelligent 

 harmony together, for Mr. Gosse's observations establish the existence 

 of a cordial and reciprocal affection between them. This learned and 

 intelligent observer describes the proceedings of a hermit which re- 

 quired a new habitation ; he saw it detach, in the most deliberate but 

 effective manner, its dear .companion, the anemone, from the old shell, 

 transport it with every care and precaution, and place it comfortably 

 upon the new shell, and then with its large pincers give to its well- 



