84 SUMMER ISLANDS AND A SUMMER SEA 



palms to steal the nuts. This seems to be a mistake, 

 though it certainly does eat fallen coconuts when it 

 can get them, tearing away the husk, and hammering 

 open one of the eyeholes of the shell with its large 

 nippers, and then extracting the pulp with the small 

 hinder pair of nippers, in the way described by 

 Darwin. On South Sentinel there are — or were in 

 1889 — no coconuts, and the only abundant fruit was 

 that of the screw-pine. 



The sight of these curious monsters crouching 

 beneath the roots and clinging to the buttresses of 

 the trees in this gloomy forest was weird enough for 

 Gustave Dore. We captured and bound about twenty 

 of them, and afterwards carried them on board alive. 

 They made but a feeble resistance, striking out with 

 their strong second pair of legs, and not using their 

 nippers at all. 



It must surely have been Birgus latro to which 

 Master Francis Fletcher refers in his account of 

 Drake's voyage round the world. The Golden Hind 

 had grown foul with her long voyage, and her water- 

 casks were much decayed, so Drake took advantage 

 of a secluded and uninhabited little island south of 

 Celebes, at which to repair ship. Here he landed his 

 men, and after strongly entrenching himself, pitched 

 tents and set up a smith's forge and a charcoal 

 factory, and here he remained for twenty-six days 

 until all defects were made good. The party found 



I 



