82 THE HERMIT-LOBSTER. 



contain the whole lobster, which, in his borrowed panoply, 

 now walks abroad in safety, careless of the wave and regard- 

 less of an enemy ; for, on the least alarm, he retreats rapidly 

 within his adopted house, where he is secure from all ordi- 

 nary shocks and assailants. The small shells become the 

 home of the young Paguri ; but when the lobsters have grown 

 too large to be contained easily in the cavity, they quit it to 

 occupy a larger, and their combats with one another to obtain 

 the shell of their choice has been a favourite theme with 

 popular writers and voyagers, for they are very common on 

 the shores of all countries.* That this connection between 

 the lobster and the shell is not accidental but foreordained, 

 is clear from the structure of the former : at the extremity 

 of the tail there are some appendages curved, and otherwise 

 fashioned, in a manner which shews that they were made to 

 hold to the shell ; and on that side of the posterior half of the 

 body which is applied against the pillar of the shell, there is 

 a series of similar appendages or claspers, which, let it be 

 remarked, occur on that side only, while all other lobsters 

 are symmetrical or alike on both halves. To these particulars 

 permit me to add the following passage from a paper on the 

 habits of Paguri by Mr. Broderip : " In pursuing my in- 

 quiries upon this subject," he says, " I have been struck by 

 two beautiful provisions in the animal oeconomy of these 

 Paguri. Their backs are towards the arch of the shell, and 

 their well-armed nippers and first two pair of feet generally 

 project beyond the mouth of it. Their two short pair of feet 

 rest upon the polished surface of the columella, and the outer 

 surface of their termination, especially that of the first pair, 

 is most admirably rough-shod to give ' the soldier ' a firm 

 footing when he makes his sortie, or to add to the resistance 

 of the crustaceous holders at the end of his tail when he is 

 attacked and wishes to withdraw into his castle. On passing 

 the finger downwards over the termination of the feet they 

 feel smooth ; but if the finger be passed upwards the rough- 

 ness is instantly perceived. The same sort of structure (it is 

 as rough as a file) is to be seen in the two smaller caudal 

 holders. The second provision I observed in a very fine and 

 large species of Pagurus from the Mauritius. Two speci- 

 mens are in my possession ; one of which is housed in a very 

 large young shell of Pteroceras truncatum, the other (nearly 

 a foot long) is naked, and on examining the under side of 



* Our native Pagurus bernhardus, adapts itself readily to many kinds of 

 shells, but it is asserted that some foreign Paguri use only certain species of 

 univalves. Some small native Paguri, recently discovered, seem to be also 

 limited in their choice. See BELL'S Brit. Crustacea, pp. 171 187. 



