552 



KEELING ISLAND. 



April, ] 836. 



a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening 

 its branchiae. The young are hkewise hatched, and hve for 

 some time, on the coast. These crabs inhabit deep burrows, 

 which they excavate beneath the roots of trees ; and here 

 they accumulate surprising quantities of the picked fibres 

 of the cocoa-nut husk, on which they rest as on a bed. 

 The Malays sometimes take advantage of their labour by 

 collecting the course fibrous substance and using it as junk. 

 These crabs are very good to eat ; moreover under the tail of 

 the larger ones there is a great mass of fat, which when melted 

 sometimes yields as much as a quart bottle full of limpid oil. 

 It has been stated by some authors that the Birgos latro 

 crawls up the cocoa-nut trees for the purpose of stealing the 

 nuts : I very much doubt the possibility of this ; but with 

 the Pandanus^ the task would be very much easier. I under- 

 stood from Mr. Liesk that on these islands the Birgos lives 

 only on the nuts which fall to the ground. 



I was a good deal surprised by finding two species of coral 

 of the genus Millepora, possessed of the property of stingy 

 ing. The stony branches or plates when taken fresh from the 

 water have a harsh feel and are not slimy, although possess- 

 ing a strong and disagreeable odour. The stinging property 

 seems to vary within certain limits in different specimens : 

 when a piece was pressed or rubbed on the tender skin of the 

 face or arm, a pricking sensation was generally caused, which 

 came on after the interval of a second, and lasted only for 

 a short time. One day, however, by merely touching my 

 face with one of the branches the pain was instantaneous ; 

 it increased as usual after a few seconds, and remaining 

 sharp for some minutes, was perceptible for half an hour 

 afterwards. The sensation was as bad as that from a nettle, 

 but more like that caused by the Portuguese man-of-war 

 {Physalia). Little red spots were produced on the tender 

 skin of the arm, which appeared as if they would have formed 

 watery pustules, but did not. The circumstance of this sting- 



* See Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1832, p. 17. 



