THE ROBBER CRAB. 203 



Anomourous type, there are many forms which, save for the abortive character of the posterior pair 

 of thoracic limbs, and their modified jaw-feet, might be placed with true Crabs or true Lobsters 

 Dromia with the former, and Galathea and Munida with the latter. Others again, like Lithodes, 

 have the plates of the abdomen irregular or partly membranous, whilst in the true Paguri they 

 are entirely unprotected by hard shelly plates. In the East and West Indies, and in the tropics 

 generally, there are many species of Anomoura which live wholly or partially away from the sea, 

 adopting terrestrial habits of life, and even becoming great climbers. They are met with living in 

 forests often miles from the sea, and if land shells are not to be found, one species of Hermit Crab 

 (Ceiwbita brunnea) protects its soft tail with an empty nut-shell, in which it makes itself perfectly at 

 home. 



The Cenobita diogenes (Fig. 20) is found on bushes a few hundred yards only from the sea 

 living in empty land shells. It is abundant in all the West Indian Islands, and has been more than 

 once brought over to England alive with cargoes of guano. The writer kept one for some weeks 

 in a fern-case in his study. It was housed in an Achatina shell, and no doubt it might have 

 continued to live to this day, but it could not be induced to eat, and it was exceedingly difficult 

 to discover what its proper food should be. This little Crab was a splendid climber, and its feats of 

 agility were often surprising. It burrowed under stones, and seemed fearful of being looked at. 



Charles Darwin, says, " In every part of Keeling Island one meets with Hermit Crabs of more 

 than one species, carrying on their backs the houses they have stolen from the neighbouring beach. 

 The large claws or pincers of some of these Crabs are most beautifully adapted, when drawn back, to 

 form an opercukan to the shell, which is nearly as perfect as the proper one that belonged to the 

 original molluscous animal. Certain kinds of these Hermits always select certain old shells only to 

 live in." 



The most remarkable of the Land Hermits is the Birgus latro, or Robber Crab (Fig. 19). Darwin 

 says, " Keeling Island has no quadruped excepting the pig, and no vegetable in quantity excepting 

 the cocoa-nut. On it the pigs, which are loaded with fat, 

 almost entirely subsist, as likewise do the poultry and 

 ducks. Even a huge Land Crab is furnished by nature 

 with a curious instinct and form of legs to open and 

 feed upon this same fruit. It is very common on all parts 

 of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size. It is 

 closely allied or identical with Birgus latro. This Crab 

 has its front pair of legs terminated by very strong and 

 heavy pincers, and the last pair by others which are 

 narrow and weak. It would at first be thought quite im- 

 possible for a Crab to open a strong cocoa-nut covered 

 with the husk, but Mr. Leisk, one of the two British re- 

 sidents, assures me he has repeatedly seen the operation 

 effected. The Crab begins by tearing the husk, fibre 

 by fibre, and always from that end under which the three 

 eye-holes are situated. When this is completed, the Crab 



commences hammering with its heavy claws on one of Fi g- i9._ B i K Gus LATRO. 



these eye-holes till an opening is made ; then, turning 

 round its body, by the aid of its posterior pair of narrow pincers it extracts the white albuminous 

 substance. I think this is as curious a case of instinct as ever I heard of, and likewise of adaptation 

 in structure between two objects apparently so remote from each other in the scheme of nature as a 

 Crab and a cocoa-nut tree." 



" The Birgus is diurnal in its habits, but every night it is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt 

 for the purpose of moistening its branchiae. The young are likewise hatched, and live for some time 

 on the sea coast. These Crabs inhabit deep burrows, which they excavate beneath the roots of the 

 cocoa-nut trees, and here they accumulate surprising quantities of the picked fibres of the cocoa-nut 

 husk, on which they rest as on a bed. The Malays sometimes take advantage of their labour by 

 collecting the coarse fibrous substance and using it as junk. These Crabs are very good to eat ; 



