THE CRAB. S47 



Red-mottled crab Rough-shelled crab. 



square holes, which 'are receptacles for its eyes, 

 out of which it thrusts them and draws them in 

 again at pleasure. Their abode is only on the 

 sandy shores of Flathera, and many other of the 

 Bahama islands. They run very fast, and retreat 

 from danger into little holes they make in the 

 sand. 



The red mottled crab has a round body; the 

 legs longer and larger than in other kinds; the 

 claws red, except which, the whole is mottled in 

 a beautiful manner with red and white. These 

 crabs inhabit the rocks hanging over the sea; 

 they are the nimblest of all others, and run with, 

 surprising agility along the upright side of a 

 rock, and even under the rocks that hang hori- 

 zontally below the water. This they are often 

 necessitated to do for escaping the assaults of 

 rapacious birds that pursue them. These crabs 

 never go to land, but frequent mostly those parts 

 of the promontories and islands of rocks in and 

 near the sea, where by the continual and violent 

 agitation of the waves against the roeks they are 

 always wet, continually receiving the spray of 

 the sea, which often washes them into it ; but 

 they instantly return to the rock again, not being 

 able to live under water, and yet requiring more 

 of that element than any of the crustaceous kinds 

 that are not fish. 



The rough-shelled crabs are pretty large, an4 

 are commonly taken from the bottom of the sea 



