222 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



The Adams'/a, wliieli is the name by which the 

 anemone is known, is nourished by the food waste of 

 the hermit crab, and it is even said that the latter 

 carries his kindness so far as to use his claws to give 

 food to his friend. The anemone is evidently a use- 

 ful associate, preventing any approach of enemies 

 with her numerous feelers or tentacles, which, in- 

 deed, have the power of stinging and paralyzing 

 troublesome visitors. 



A very significant fact proves the friendliness of 

 the association. It has been already stated that as 

 the hermit crab increases in size he is obliged to 

 change the shell he inhabits for a larger one. But 

 then arises the question, What is to become of the 

 abandoned anemone ? When the heiTnit crab finds 



his quarters are too 

 close for comfort- 

 able habitation, and 

 sets out and finds 

 another and a lar- 

 ger shell, he makes 

 this fact known — 

 how, no one but 

 hermit crabs and 

 anemones know, 

 and they have 

 never revealed the 

 secret — to his com- 

 panion, who hastens to creep up and slip softly on the 

 back of its friend's shell. Then the hermit enters its 

 new dwellings and the old association is re-established. 



Hermit crab inclosed in a mass of polvps 

 ■which entirely cover the shell in which 

 it lives. 



