52O THE OCEAN WORLD, 



itself firmly to the walls of its habitation. It is at once strong and 

 voracious, eating with much relish the dead fishes and fragments of 

 molluscs and annelids which come in its way. Nor does it hesitate 

 to attack and devour living 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 inhabiting 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 quarrelsome. Two hermit crabs 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 protected, though eager to fight, usually 

 adopt 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 wit- 

 nessed a struggle which had a more tragic end. A hermit crab met 

 a brother hermit pleasantly lodged in a shell much more spacious 

 than his own. He seized it by the head with its 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 convulsions of agony. " Our battles," says Charles Bonnet, 

 " have rarely such important objects in view ; they fight each other 

 for a house." 



A pretty little Actinia, the Cloak Anemone (Adamsia palliata,, 

 loves to live with the hermit, and exhibits sympathies almost in- 

 explicable. In the sea 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 crab which required 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 pre- 

 caution, and place it comfortably upon the new shell, and then with 

 its large pincers give to its well-beloved many little taps, as if to fix 



