Courtship 



without any reluctance. This promenade occupied an 

 hour or more, during which the animals turned several 

 times. At length, if in the neighbourhood of a suitable 

 stone, the male would dig a hole, without for a moment 

 entirely quitting his hold of the female, and presently 

 both would disappear into the newly formed retreat." 



Crabs are not exactly the creatures that one would 

 expect to show any amorous proclivities, yet some of them 

 certainly do so. Colonel Alcock relates the story of the 

 amorous fiddler-crabin the followingpicturesque manner: 

 " Landing one afternoon in March upon a cheerful mud- 

 flat of the Godavari sea-face, I was bewildered by the 

 sight of a multitude of small pink objects twinkling in 

 the sun, and always, like will-o'-the-wisps, disappearing 

 as I came near to them, but flashing brightly on ahead as 

 far as the eye could reach. 



" It was not until I stayed perfectly quiet that I discovered 

 that these twinkling gems were the brandished nippers of 

 a host of male fiddler-crabs. By long watching I found 

 out that the little creatures were waving their nippers 

 with a purpose the purpose apparently being to attract 

 the attention of an occasional infrequent female, who, 

 uncertain, coy, and hard to please, might be seen uncon- 

 cernedly sifting the sand at the mouth of her burrow. If 

 this demure little flirt happened to creep near the burrow 

 of one of the males, then that favoured individual became 

 frantic with excitement, dancing round his domain on tip- 

 toe and waving his great cheery hand as if demented. 

 Then, if another male, burning with jealousy, showed a 

 desire to interfere, the two puny little suitors would make 

 savage back-handed swipes at one another, wielding their 

 cumbrous hands as if they had no weight at all. 



" Unfortunately, though I spent many a precious hour on 

 the watch from time to time, I could never see that these 

 combats came to anything ; the males seemed always to 

 be in a state of passionate excitement and the females 

 to be always indifferent and unconcerned ; and though 



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