Crabs, Lobsters, etc. 



a wholesale peregrination to the sea, in order that the 

 females may deposit their eggs therein and allow the 

 young to hatch out. Marvellous stories have been told of 

 these trips to the sea stories of obstacles surmounted in 

 the most astonishing fashion. One writer says : " The 

 noise of their march is compared to the rattling of the 

 armour of a regiment of cuirassiers." 



At the end of the summer this crab, like all others, 

 sheds its shell. The hard armour of all crustaceans must 

 of necessity be changed from time to time, in order that 

 the animal may grow. When the shell is thrown off the 

 crab is soft and liable to fall a prey to marauding animals 

 who could do it no harm when encased in its armour. 

 The land crab overcomes the difficulty by retiring to its 

 burrow, which it thoughtfully stocks with grass and other 

 herbage. Then it closes the entrance and remains in 

 hiding till its new shell has hardened and it is able to face 

 the world and its dangers are no more. 



The fiddler-crabs are well adapted to life on land and 

 they are more truly terrestrial than the violet land crabs. 

 The females are very ordinary-looking creatures and dwell 

 in burrows, which their mates guard assiduously. One 

 claw in the male is developed to an extraordinary degree 

 and is moved about in such a manner as to give a most 

 comical appearance to its owner. The scientific name of 

 this crab means " laughable," by the way, and the constant x 

 waving of its strong right arm has also earned it the name 

 of " fiddler." These well-developed claws are supposed to 

 be used for fighting purposes, but that they do no great 

 harm is the opinion of most observers. 



The robber-crab is perhaps the most notorious of all 

 the land crustaceans. A native of the islands of the 

 Indian Ocean, he is a hermit crab, though he does not live 

 in a borrowed shell. This is the crab, by the way, which 

 is able to ascend trees. Considerable doubt has been cast 

 upon this assertion, nevertheless it is a fact. Photographs 

 of the crab in the act of ascending sago palms have been 



254 



