CRAB AND COCOA-NUT 



open a strong cocoa-nut covered with the husk, but Mr. Liesk 

 assures me that he has repeatedly seen this effected. The crab 

 begins by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from 

 that end under which the three eye-holes are situated , when 

 this is completed, the crab commences hammering with its 

 heavy claws on one of the eye-holes till an opening is made. 

 Then turning round its body, by the aid of its posterior and 

 narrow pair of pincers, it extracts the white albuminous 

 substance. I think this is as curious a case of instinct as 

 ever I heard of, and likewise of adaptation in structure 

 between two objects apparently so remote from each other 

 in the scheme of nature as a crab and a cocoa-nut tree. 

 The Birgos is diurnal in its habits, but every night it is said 

 to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of 

 moistening its branchiae [gills]. The young are likewise 

 hatched, and live for some time on the coast. These crabs 

 inhabit deep burrows, which they hollow out beneath the 

 roots of trees, and there they accumulate surprising quanti- 

 ties of the picked fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, on which 

 they rest as on a bed. The Malays sometimes take advan- 

 tage of this, and collect the fibrous mass to use as a junk. . . . 

 To show the wonderful strength of the front pair of pincers, 

 I may mention that Captain Moresby confined one in a 

 strong tin box . . . the lid being secured with wire ; but the 

 crab turned down the edges and escaped. In turning down 

 the edges, it actually punched many small holes quite 

 through the tin ! " In the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington there is a photograph of a palm grove 

 with a number of these crabs, one of which is in the act of 

 climbing up or descending, I forget which a tree. 



According to the account given by Mr. Arthur Adams in 

 Zoology of the Voyage of the Samarang^ these somewhat 

 terrible creatures are not always satisfied with a diet of 



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