ANIMAL LIFE OF THE SHORES 299 



was never able to confirm the statement. It would 

 take a long time to detail all the creatures which 

 frequent these shallow seas and sandy shores, and as 

 the habits of many of them have been charmingly 

 described in Colonel A. Alcock's A Naturalist in Indian 

 Seas, I will pass on to give the briefest possible account 

 of two interesting little crabs that were found, one in 

 the sand off Santubong, the other at Buntal, on the 

 opposite side of the big bay. 



The Santubong crab is named Dorippe facchino, and, 

 as in all the species of the genus, the two hinder pairs 

 of walking legs are reduced in size, turned upwards, 

 and terminated by prehensile claws. In this particular 

 species the legs hold in their claws an oval gelatinous 

 plate on which grows a little Sea-Anemone ; the crab 

 rests with the hinder part of the body buried in the 

 soft mud or sand, the front part of the body and the 

 big claws being exposed, but the former partially 

 sheltered by the sea-anemone growing on the plate 

 that is borne aloft by the peculiarly modified hind-legs 

 of the crab. This is a very interesting case of symbiosis, 

 and no doubt the crab derives much advantage from 

 the association, for the Sea-Anemone is furnished with 

 stinging powers that render it an unsavoury morsel to 

 fish and other enemies of the crab. Whether the Sea- 

 Anemone is also benefited is not so certain, but at least 

 it is provided with a pied-a-terre in an environment 

 where these creatures cannot usually flourish owing to 

 the shifting, unstable nature of the sea-bottom. The 

 little plate on which the Sea-Anemone grows is secreted 

 by the crab itself, it is always of the same outline and 

 size as the base of the Sea-Anemone, and it is marked 

 by concentric lines of growth, showing that it has 



