112 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



"Before leaving, an old Savage Island man at the mission 

 brought in three or four immense Ou-ous, which evinced in their 

 efforts to escape, bursting coils of cocoa-nut sinnet, a strength 

 quite suf&cient to husk the toughest cocoa-nut. As to the meth- 

 od of obtaining the contents afterward, every native (both Sa- 

 moans and NiuaTis) confirms the account mentioned before. The 

 Niuans understand their habits best. The old man who brought 

 them to-day dug them out of the holes in which they remain 

 many weeks torpid. The female differs from the male in having 

 three flippers, well furnished with strong borers, on the right side 

 of the sac.'' 



Whe'h fuU grown, this crab is more than two feet in length, 

 and, as may be seen by the illustration, is stoutly made in pro- 

 portion to its length. The color of the, creature is very pale 

 brown, with a decided tinge of yellow. 



Passing by many other species of Crustacea which burrow in 

 the earth, or mud, or sand, we come to a very remarkable being, 

 which makes its habitation in solid wood. This is the "WooD- 

 BOEING Shrimp {Ghelura terebrans), one of the sessile -eyed Crus- 

 tacea, nearly related to the well-known sand-hopper, which is so 

 plentiful on our coasts. 



Although very small, it is terribly destructive, and does no 

 small damage to wooden piles driven into the bed of the sea. 

 It is furnished with a^eculiar rasping instrument, by means of 

 which it is enabled to scrape away the wood and form a little 

 burrow, in which it resides, and which supplies it with nourisb- 

 ment as well as with a residence. The tunnels which it makes 

 are mostly driven in an oblique direction ; so that when a large 

 number of these creatures have been at work upon a piece of 

 timber, the effect of|j|eir united labors is to loosen a flake of va- 

 riable dimensions. As long as Jhe weather is calm, the loosened 

 flake keeps its position ; but no sooner does a tempest arise, than 

 the flake is washed away, and a new surface is exposed to the ac- 

 tion of the Ghelura. 



When the Ghelura is placed on dry land, it is able to leap 

 nearly as well as the sand -hopper, and performs the feat in a 

 similar manner. 



This is not the only wood-boring crustacean with which our 

 coasts are pestered ; for the Gribble {Limnoria tenehrans) makes 



