220 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



live in shallow water on the coast, but as they grow 

 older they retreat to the deeper waters, whence fisher- 

 men bring them up in vast quantities in their drag nets. 



Having once obtained lodgings, a hermit crab re- 

 mains in them as long as possible, for he does not 

 like moving ; and when he is forced to change his 

 shell he takes care to select one too large for present 

 use, so that he will have room to grow for some time 

 without being obliged to quit his quarters. 



The soft stomach with which hermit crabs are 

 provided, and which perfectly fits and lodges in Jiis 

 borrowed shell, is often cooked and eaten together 

 with his claws in Europe, where, by sailors at least, 

 they seem to be considered a great luxury ; but tastes 

 differ, and I doubt if many people in the United 

 States would relish such food. 



Sometimes the drag net brings in great specimens 

 of a shell called B^icoinida, inhabited by a hermit crab 

 of a particular kind, and fastened upon it a beautiful 

 sea anemone. The strangest part of all this is, that 

 this j)articular kind of shell seems to be monopolized 

 by one species of hermit crab, and the anemone is 

 never found on any other shell or upon one of those 

 that contains the animal to which it properly belongs, 

 being invariably fastened to a Buccinida inliabited by 

 a hermit crab. 



How is it that these two creatures so different in 

 organization always associate together ? The anemone 

 has no eyes and no limbs, and can creep about only in 

 a very lame and tardy fashion ; the hermit crab sup- 

 plies both. It is as if a blind and crippled soldier, 



