332 EARTH TEESPASSEES. 



reader just imagine himself cast on a desert island 

 with no tools, with nothing to eat but cocoa-nuts, and 

 these on the top of a palm-tree which waves about 

 in every breeze. I know that, under such circum- 

 stances, nine out of every ten men would starve to 

 death. 



Putting aside the difficulty of climbing the tree, 

 even if a cocoa-nut happened to fall, they could not 

 easily get at its contents. Cocoa-nuts, when fresh 

 from the tree, are surrounded with a thick coating of 

 hard, matted fibre, which bears about the same rela- 

 tion to the nut itself as the fruit of a peach does to its 

 stone. A human being would find himself rather at a 

 loss to get at the interior of a nut ; and yet the Robber 

 Crab can supply itself with nuts, and open them as 

 easily as the attendant at a fishmonger's shop opens 

 oysters. 



Should no nut have fallen, the Crab can climb the 

 tree and fling the nuts down, descending afterwards to 

 feed on the banquet which it has provided for itself. 

 It begins by inserting its claws into the outer coating, 

 and tearing it away piecemeal. When it has thus ex- 

 tracted the nut from its covering, it sets to work at 

 the task of opening it. Anyone who has seen a cocoa- 

 nut is aware that at one end there are three circular 

 spots, much softer than the shell of the nut, these 

 being, in fact, the apertures through which the young 

 palm plant springs when the nut is buried in the 

 ground. One of these is much softer than the rest, and 

 into it the Kobber Crab fixes its claw. Holding the 

 nut in this manner, the Crab bangs it against a stone, 

 breaks the shell, and then feasts on the contents. 



