HERMIT CRABS 77 



because it has eyes which are enormously big 

 in proportion to the size of the head. They are 

 set on long footstalks, which project on either 

 side, so that the head looks rather like a hammer. 

 Then the long curved horns which the zoea had 

 are to be seen no longer, and the carapace is 

 shaped much more like that of the perfect animal, 

 while the great claws begin to show, and the 

 legs increase in length. The tail, however, is 

 still quite free, like that of a lobster, and the 

 little animal still swims by turning somersaults 

 in the water, and lives on the same tiny scraps 

 of decaying matter on which it fed as a zoea. 

 After a few weeks it throws off its skin once 

 more, and appears in the world as a perfect 

 crab. 



PLATE XXVI 



HERMIT CRABS (i and 2) 



If you go down among the rocks when the 

 tide is out, and hunt about in the pools, you may 

 often find the shell of a whelk in which a small 

 crab is living, with one of his great claws 

 carefully guarding the entrance. This is a Hermit 

 Crab, and a very curious little creature he is. 

 For, in the first place, his long tail is quite free, 

 like that of a lobster, instead of being fastened 

 down to the lower surface of his body; and in 



