Miners, Diggers, and Carpenters. 



The Birgos is diurnal in its habits ; but every night it 

 is said to pay a visit to the sea, no doubt for the pur- 

 pose of moistening its branchiae. The young are like- 

 wise hatched, and live for some time, on the coast. 

 These crabs inhabit deep burrows, which they hollow 

 out beneath the roots of trees, and where they accu- 

 mulate 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 this, and collect 

 the fibrous mass to use as junk. These crabs are very 

 good to eat ; moreover, under the tail of the larger ; 

 ones there is a great mass of fat, which, when melted, 

 sometimes yields as much as a quart bottle full of limpid 

 oil. It has been stated by some authors that the Birgos 

 crawls up the cocoa-nut trees for the purpose of steal- 

 ing the nuts. I very much doubt the possibility of 

 this ; but with the Pandanus the task would be very 

 much easier. I was told by Mr. Liesk that on these 

 islands the Birgos lives only on the nuts which have 

 fallen to the ground. Captain Moresby informs me 

 that this crab inhabits the Chagos and Seychelle groups, 

 but not the neighbouring Maldiva Archipelago. It 

 formerly abounded at Mauritius, but only a few small 

 ones are now found there. In the Pacific, this species, 

 or one with closely allied habits, is said to inhabit a 

 single coral island north of the Society group. To 

 show the wonderful strength of the front pair of pincers, 

 I may mention that Captain Moresby confined one in 

 a strong tin box which had held biscuits, the lid being 

 secured with wire ; but the crab turned down the 

 edges and escaped. In turning down the edges it actu- 

 ally punched many small holes quite through the tin ! " 



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