7658 Crustacea. 



clambers from the old shell to the new, holding, like a cautious indi- 

 vidual, by the old abode uutil it has been proved and found suitable. 

 Should it be too small or otherwise rejected, the crab returns to its 

 former shell and waddles away in search of another. I have fre- 

 quently observed them in confinement, and have often tickled them 

 out of the shell through a hole at the apex of the spine, for the pur- 

 pose of seeing them get in again. The act bafl3es all description; it is 

 so inimitably grotesque that it was always a wonder to me that they 

 could do it themselves without laughing; but their gravity was half the 

 fun. When one gets out of its shell it seems in a dreadful state of 

 alarm ; to say " it looks like a fish out of water" scarcely realizes the 

 amount of its desire to get back again ; it runs to the first shell it can 

 get, puts its feet (not the claws) one upon each side of the shell and 

 bounds in, vaulting much like an athletic youth will leap a gate, ex- 

 cept that the crab throws its body between its legs, — an act the man 

 cannot do, except some jugglers at a show. Sometimes, in its eager- 

 ness to get into a shell, it chooses one much too small ; the shell covers 

 perhaps but half its body. No matter; there it will remain, like an 

 overgrown schoolboy with his coat too small, regardless of all 

 criticism, until it finds a more suitable abode, which it _loses no 

 opportunity to obtain. 



Sometimes the opposite extreme may occur, and the crab may find 

 itself in a shell too large, one that it can scarcely manage. AVhen 

 the shell is on its back, the weight of the little fellow is not enough 

 perhaps to toss it over; but in perseverance more than one animal 

 of the lower forms in this respect is teacher to man : the little crab 

 struggles and tries, gets its feet to touch the ground, and over comes 

 the shell. Alas ! it covers the animal entirely, but still the incon- 

 venience is borne until a new tenement can be procured. I recollect 

 once seeing a small crab, under these circumstances, get into a too 

 big shell ; it had not been there long before a larger crab approached. 

 The little fellow, no doubt, feeling that it was not in its own abode, 

 felt confident of trespassing, and then, like a self-convicted creature, 

 sneaked in out of sight. 



How often it is we find that individuals, in their efforts to avoid 

 detection, exactly perform that which leads to their exposure ! The 

 big crab came up and felt the shell all over, twisted and turned 

 it about, and found it to be the very one that was wanted. I could 

 just see the smaller crab within watching for the intruder to go away ; 

 but it was not to be : the shell suited, so big crab jumped in ! As 

 the big one advanced within the shell the little one went further in, 



