Notices of New Books. 3853 



The Soldier Crab. — " Among the loose pebbles that formed the sur- 

 face of this hill wherever the huge out-cropping masses of rock did 

 not appear, and that added to the difficulties of penetrating the maze, 

 were many large shells. The first of these that I saw was a large round 

 brown snail {Helix Jamaicensis), and as its exterior was very fresh, I 

 thought I had a prize ; but on taking it up, I saw the large claw of a 

 hermit crab, red and tuberculous, closing up the orifice, which it exact- 

 ly fitted. The negroes call these crabs soldiers, perhaps from their red 

 hue. Afterwards I saw other specimens, and some of a large Trochus 

 (Meleagris picus) with pearly interior, as well as a capacious Ampul- 

 laria, inhabited by the same species. It crawls irregularly, but quick- 

 ly, making its shell rattle against the pebbles as it proceeds ; but if 

 alarmed, it instantly withdraws into its house, and bringing its strong 

 legs around its head in the form of a semicircle, claps its great claw 

 upon the whole, presenting, as I have said above, nothing but a hard, 

 shelly, prickly, convex surface, within the margin of the house, so 

 accurately filling the aperture, and so strongly held down, that it is 

 impossible to extract the animal alive without breaking the shell to 

 fragments. Yet the wary soldier is ready for fight : while I was hold- 

 ing one in my hand, the rogue protruded his claw, and seizing the skin 

 of my palm, fairly took the piece out. 



" The species was the well-known Ccenobita Diogenes, and, as I 

 afterwards found, abundantly common in the woods near the coast. I 

 even found it numerous, inhabiting the shell of the same large Helix, 

 far up on the side of the mountains, behind Blue-fields, in the driest 

 and most rocky situations. Sir H. de la Beche found it inhabiting sea- 

 shells, near the Rio Minho, ten miles from the sea. It is evident that 

 the active little creatures must have crawled the whole distance, and 

 as the Helix is found in a living state only in the woods, and as far as 

 I know, only in the mountains, it follows that the soldiers must have 

 travelled up the country in their sea-side shells, until they came to the 

 region of the Helix, and there have changed their houses, and brought 

 the latter dowu towards the sea on their return. Many of the Helix 

 shells were so pearly in the interior, and so bright and fresh on the 

 exterior, as to show that they could not have long lain exposed to the 

 weather since tenanted by the original proprietor. This suggests the 

 inquiry, whether in any case the Ccenobita destroys the snail to obtain 

 his shell for a dwelling." — p. 44. 



Long-tailed Humming-bird. — " While I was up in the calibash 

 tree, engaged in detaching the bunches of Oncidium, the beautiful 

 long-tailed humming-bird (Trochilus polytmus) came shooting by with 



