BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 73 



some little skill in observation is required for their detection. 

 Where it is possible, the hermit-crab having withdrawn within the 

 spiral chamber of his borrowed house, closes the aperture with the 

 larger of its claws. In the case of the shells belonging to the 

 genus Nerita, the resemblance of the claw to the natural opercu- 

 lum is very close, but it will not bear inspection. A very slight 

 attention reveals the lobster claw. As a matter of fact the animal 

 tries the deception sometimes on shells that have not a shelly 

 operculum. Many naturalists speak of the deception as if it was 

 the result of some reasoning power on the part of the animal, but 

 an attentive consideration of the facts would, I think, show that 

 the animal acts in a blind manner in the matter. In a large 

 number of cases there is no imitation of the operculum. Nerita 

 seems to be the genus the shape of whose aperture especially 

 favors it. It is also one of the commonest shells found on the 

 beach and among the mangroves. 



The soft unsymmetrical abdomen, always without calcareous 

 plates and often with ventral appendages, is very liable to injury 

 without some very hard protecting covering such as a molluscan 

 shell. It seems to accommodate itself in shape to the windings of the 

 spiral chamber, so as to hold with such a tenacious grip, that the 

 animal can seldom be extracted without injury. Sometimes the 

 hermit-crabs will rush impetuously out of the shells through fright, 

 but as a rule they hide themselves as best they may, keeping perfectly 

 quiet until an opportunity of escape seems to offer. A friend of 

 mine once, attracted by the beauty and variety of the shells on 

 the beach at Tanjong-kling near Malacca, collected a number of 

 these spoils of ocean for the adornment of his room. He left 

 them on his dressing-table at the bungalow, and when he returned 

 after dinner they were gone. All night long his slumbers were 

 disturbed as if a game of marbles were being played upon the 

 floor. He made sure it was a serpent in his room, and dreaded to 

 expose his feet to the clanger of being bitten by getting out to see. 

 It was the hermit-crabs cruising about and dragging their shells 

 along the boards. In the morning they were found scattered all 

 over the floor, having travelled fast and far during the night. 



