THE CONQUEST OF THE DRY LAND 225 
The Robber grows to an enormous size, being 
sometimes a foot in length, and, as it feeds 
entirely on the pulp and milk of the coco-nut, 
its flesh is sweet and oily, so it is regarded as 
a dainty by the natives of the islands. Darwin 
believed that the Robber-Crab only picked up 
the fallen nuts from the ground, though it was 
known to climb trees, but a later observer has 
not only seen but photographed it in the act 
of picking the fruit from the tree. To open 
the nut “the crab begins by tearing the husk, 
fibre by fibre, and always beginning from that 
end under which the three eyeholes are situ- 
ated; when this is completed the crab com- 
mences hammering with its heavy claws on 
one of the eyeholes till an opening is made. 
Then, turning round its body, by the aid of its 
posterior and narrow pair of pincers, it ex- 
tracts the white albuminous substance.” 
The Robber-Crab still has small gills, but 
its gill-chamber is divided into two parts, and 
the upper part is able to breathe dry air. Yet 
the Robber-Crab is said to go to the sea at 
intervals to moisten his gills. The young ones 
start life in the water very much like young 
hermit-crabs, but they reach maturity by a 
less roundabout path. 
