THE FIDDLER CRAB 67 



PLATE XXII 



THE FIDDLER CRAB (2) 



The crabs about which I have been telling 

 you live in the sea, though they often leave it 

 for some little time and run about on the shore. 

 But none of them can swim, and if they are 

 thrown into deep water they just sink to the 

 bottom with their legs sprawling, feeling about 

 for some object to which they can cling. Some- 

 times, however, if you look into one of the pools 

 which are left among the rocks when the tide 

 goes down, you may see a small crab swimming 

 through the water with some little speed. This 

 is quite sure to be a Fiddler Crab, and if you 

 catch it and examine its hinder legs, you will find 

 that instead of being quite slender, with hooked 

 claws at the tips, as they are in most crabs, 

 they are flattened out into broad, oval plates. 

 And you will also find that these plates have 

 a fringe of rather long hairs growing all round 

 them. 



Now these are the paddles with which the 

 crab rows itself through the water, and it is 

 called the "Fiddler Crab" because the move- 

 ments which it makes with them are rather like 

 those of a man who is playing the violin. You 

 can easily keep it in an aquarium, and a very 



