20 BIRGUS LATEO. 



reply to the query— Can there be any reasonable doubt on the 

 subject ? 



The Birgus was to be found in most of the islands we visited. 

 It is to be usually observed at or near the coast ; but on one occasion, 

 in St. Christoval, I found an individual at a height of 300 feet above 

 the sea. AVhilst traversing, in September, 1882, the belt of screw- 

 pines, which borders the beach on the east coast of Malaupaina, 

 the southern island of the Tliree Sisters, I came upon one of these 

 large crabs, ensconced in the angle between the buttressed roots of a 

 tree, with a full sized cocoa-nut within the reach of its pair of big 

 claws. From the fresh-looking appearance of the shell, it had been 

 evidently, but recently, husked, which operation had been per- 

 formed more cleanly than if a native had done it. There was an 

 opening at the eye-hole end of the shell of a somewhat regular 

 oblong form, which measured 2 by 1| inches, and was large enough 

 to admit the powerful claws of the crab.^ The white kernel, which 

 had the firm consistence of that of the mature nut, had been scooped 

 out to the extent of from 1 to ^l inches around the aperture ; small 

 pieces of the kernel lay on the ground outside the nut, and others 

 were floating about in the milk inside, of which the shell was about 

 A fourth-part full. 



I had, without a doubt, disturbed the Birgus in the middle of its 

 meal; but, curiously enough, there were no cocoa-nut palms to be 

 seen within fifty paces of the spot where the crab was found in its 

 retreat. Not only had the shell been very recently husked, but it 

 was evident, from the fresh condition of the milk and kernel, that 

 an interval of less than a couple of hours had elapsed since the 

 opening had been made. There was no possible explanation of the 

 crab having got at the edible portion of the cocoa-nut, except through 

 its own agency. The island is uninhabited, being only occasionally 

 visited by fishing-parties of natives from St. Christoval, none of 

 whom were on the island during the ship's stay. There was, there- 

 fore, the strongest presumptive evidence that the />^>^^^shad not only 

 husked the cocoa-nut, but had also broken the hole at the end, in 

 order to get at the kernel. , 



■ I kept the crab alive on board on a diet of cocoa-nuts for three 

 weeks, Avhen, one morning, to my great disappointment, I found it 

 dead. Other foods, such as bananas, were ofl^ered to it but were left 

 untouched, and its appetite for cocoa-nuts continued unimpaired to 



1 This shell was prcsontcil to the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



