66S8 



Crustacea. 



Just so with the crab : he feels it going, and he grasps it tight ; after 

 a time the hold relaxes, the meat is pulled again, and the hand is 

 grasped the tighter ; but confidence in its security again loosens the 

 grasp, and the cautious thief steals more gently, but perseveres until 

 the meat is procured, and then quietly retires, and within the shell 

 devours the meal that his friend procured for himself. Having 

 eaten his first mouthful and found the food most palatable, the crab 

 looks down and finds his dinner gone. He knew he had it in his 

 firm grasp, and will not believe his eyes. He looks and turns and 

 twists about. It must have fallen down ; he looks, and, like a human 

 being, looks everywhere but where it is ; and evidently you can see it 

 in his face that the last suspicion in his mind is that his friend has 

 stolen his dinner. He would not do it, sir ! Poor, confiding crab ! 



In these cases we perceive that the food which they have eaten has 

 been brought within their reach by some fortunate circumstance ; but 

 occasionally hunger tempts them to go in search of prey ; and herein 

 they frequently exhibit considerable ingenuity : we have it upon the 

 authority of a correspondent in the ' Magazine of Natural History' 

 for 1831, that a crab has been observed to make an effort to attack 

 an oyster in its strong recess ; but the cautious oyster, by some 

 instinctive perception, knew that an enemy was near, and invariably 

 closed his shells whenever the crab tried to insert his claws between 

 them. But the crab was hungry ; he made several attempts, and met 

 with the same result : the oyster had an objection to be eaten. 



It may be in the memory of others besides myself, that in the 

 Natural History instruction of school -days we were told how a 

 famous fox would catch a crab. The sly and clever Reynard knew 

 that to catch him in his mouth the crab had claws to bite, and that 

 he might catch him by his nose, of which he was very careful, besides 

 his objection to dipping it into the salt water, which in itself is not 

 pleasant. So to prevent any disagreeable consequence, as well as to 

 succeed in his desire, he teases the poor crab with his soft, bushy tail, 

 which in weak revenge the crab firmly grasps in his strong nip- 

 pers and there holds firm. The wicked and cunning fox then runs 

 away, and pulls the crab ashore, where he destroys and devours him 

 at his will. Gulliver, in his Brobdignagian travels, tells us how birds 

 of prey, in that remote country, have the same habits as those of more 

 known lands ; and when they have a mollusk of which they cannot 

 crack the shell, fly with it in their mouths to the higher regions of 

 the air, and let the poor thing fall. The bird then descends to the 

 earth, and devours the animal yet writhing in the broken shell* 



