THE HERMIT-CRAB. 



A jar of hermit-craba in alcohol will farniBh material for a de- 

 lightfal lesBon. If bnt few of the children have Been them in their 

 homes, ve begin with a short aooonnt of their habits. 



Last summer I spent part of the vacation at the sea- 

 shore, and one day, while I was walking on the beach at low 

 tide, I canght sight of some snail shells moving along jnst 

 below the water's edge. But who ever saw snails crawl 

 80 fast ? And they were on the sand instead of partly 



Fl(i 1 



buried in it. As I stooped to pick up one, I was just in 

 time to catch a glimpse of a small lobster-like head and 

 claws disappearing inside, while one of the big claws 

 closed the aperture of the shell with a sharp click. I had 

 come upon a colony of hermit-crabs (Fig. 1). I put 

 some in a pail of sea-water and carried them to the house, 

 where I could watch them. As soon as the water in the 

 (ail began to grow impure, the crabs left their shells 



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