108 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



It is a quick walker, though not gifted with such marvelous 

 speed as that which i^ the property of the racer and other land 

 crabs, and is rather awkward in its gait, impeded probably by the 

 enormous claws. While walking, it presents a curious aspect, 

 being lifted nearly a foot above the ground on its two central 

 pairs of legs, and if it be intercepted in its retreat, it brandishes 

 its formidable weapons, clattering them loudly, and always keep- 

 ing its face toward the enemy. Some writers aver that it is capa- 

 ble of climbing up the stems of the palm-trees, in order to get at 

 the fruit, but this assertion seems to require very strong corrobo- 

 ration before it can be believed. 



The, food of the Eobber Crab is of a very peculiar nature, con- 

 sisting chiefly, if not entirely, of the cocoa-nut. Most of my read- 

 ers have seen this enormous fruit as it appears when take© from 

 the tree, surrounded with a thick massy envelope of fibrous sub- 

 stance, which, when stripped from the nut itself, is employed for 

 many useful purposes. How the creature is to feed on the kernel 

 seems quite a mystery ; and, primd facie, for a crab to extract the 

 cocoa-nut from its envelope, to pierce the thick and stubborn shell, 

 and to feed upon the inclosed kernel, seems an utterly impossible 

 task. Indeed, had not the feat been watched by credible witness- 

 es, no one who was acquainted with the habits and powers of the* 

 Crustacea would have credited such an assertion. Yet Mr. Dar- 

 win, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, and other observant men, have 

 watched the habits of the creature, and all agree in their accounts. 



According to Mr. Darwin, the crab, seizes upon the fallen cocoa- 

 nuts,- and with its enormous pincers tears away the outer cover- 

 ing,'reducing it to a mass of raveled threads. This substance is 

 carried by the crabs into their holes, for the, purpose of forming a 

 bed whereon they can rest when they change their shells, and the 

 Malays are in the habit of robbing the burrows of these stored 

 fibres, which are ready picked for them, and which they use as 

 "junk," i. e. a rough kind of oakum, which is employed for calk- 

 ing the seams of vessels, making mats, and similar purposes. 

 When the crab has freed the nut from the husk, it introduces the 

 small end of a claw into one of the little holes which are found at 

 one end of the cocoa-nut, and by turning the claw backward and 

 forward, as if it were a brad-awl, the crab contrives to scoop out 

 the soft substance of the nut. 



According to the observations of Messrs. Tyerman and Ben- 

 nett, the well-known missionaries to the South Seas, the Robber 



