THE HABITS OF FIDDLER-CRABS. 



123 



one of his fellows approaches too close to his domain, he rushes 

 forth and enters into fierce combat. Each crab makes his hole 

 the center from which all his activities are conducted, and he 

 treats the approach of any intruder as an unfriendly act. 



Though combats between 2 males are most frequent, males 

 sometimes fight with females, and members of the weaker sex 

 not infrequently struggle against each other. If 2 males that 

 difi'er markedly in size fight, the larger combatant usually takes 

 little interest in the contest and soon makes off", even though 

 he may be hotly pursued by his smaller antagonist. When a 

 small fiddler trespasses on a larger crab's territory, however, 

 he is soon chased away. Males of different species frequently 



Fig. 4. — Position assumed by male fiddlers when fighting. 



"cross swords," but the most sustained and spirited contests are 

 between those of the same size and kind. 



In fighting (fig. 4) , the males face each other and often dance 

 about excitedly, at the same time frantically waving the small 

 chelse. The large chelse are then locked together, like two men 

 shaking hands, and each contestant attempts to break off his 

 opponent's claw by a sudden wrench. Such quick movements 

 are often so violent that one of the fighters, rather than lose his 

 claw, is obliged to loosen his hold and in so doing is throwm 

 backward for a distance of from 60 to 90 centimeters. Although 

 fights were frequent during the time the writer made observa- 

 tions, he saw only one crab dismembered (p. 121), and this 

 individual did not survive the combat. In fighting, the large 



