268 IN LOWER FLORIDA iVILDS 



they dig out with one of the claws (the male uses 

 the small one) and pass to the mouth with rapid 

 movement, reminding one of a hungry tramp, — a. 

 most laughable sight. 



On the south and southeastern coasts the fiddlers 

 are largely replaced by the great West Indian 

 land crab {Cardisoma guanhumi) which makes its 

 burrows in the muddy flats, and sometimes in 

 summer in the hammocks and pine woods. Here 

 in Florida this crab is active during the rainy 

 season, and after showers it wanders about in 

 great numbers. In the drier part of the year it is 

 seldom seen though it continues to prowl about 

 more or less at night. In the brackish mud flats, 

 especially near the higher ground, one niay some- 

 times see in a square yard of space a half-dozen of 

 their burrows, varying in size from half an inch 

 to the thickness of a man's arm. They pile the 

 mud from below around the mouths of their 

 burrows after the manner of the fresh water cray- 

 fishes. Without doubt this mechanical action on 

 the soil like that of the earth worms helps aerate 

 and prepare it for the dry land vegetation which is 

 to come later. So it happens that these crabs so 

 fuU of evil and so generally despised may, after all, 



