Sagacity of the Birgos. 115 



In wandering over Keeling Island the naturalist's 

 attention was immediately attracted by the giant 

 land-crab, Birgos, which lived here, feeding upon 

 cocoa-nuts. The crab is, in reality, a close ally of 

 the hermit variety, having, instead of a shell, an ab- 

 domen protected by an armor. That such a creature 

 can open a cocoa-nut, which man finds difficult, even 

 with a hatchet, seems incredible, yet it is a very 

 simple matter for the big crustacean. It begins by 

 tearing away the husk, bit by bit, fibre by fibre, and, 

 what is remarkable, always at the end bearing the 

 two eye-holes. When the husk has been removed, 

 the crab hammers away at the holes with its large 

 claw until an opening is made. But then one may 

 ask, how can it obtain the meat ? The crab solves 

 this by turning around and inserting its long slender 

 fifth claw into the orifice, which, being armed with 

 pincers, takes out the meat bit by bit. " I think," says 

 Darwin, " 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 Birgos 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 coast. These crabs inhabit deep bur- 

 rows, which they hollow out beneath the roots of 

 trees, and where they accumulate surprising quanti- 

 ties of the picked fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, on 

 which they rest, as in a bed. The Malays some- 

 times take advantage of this, and collect the fibrous 



