204 AT MINNIKOY 



there in the crannies of its walls Geograpsus grayi 

 will be found skulking ; and, lurking under fallen 

 timber, a close search will often bring to light Meta- 

 sesarma rousseauxi, whose mottled colouring is so like 

 that of dead lichen-spotted wood as to make this 

 little crab almost invisible. Everywhere innumerable 

 hermit - crabs are to be seen staggering about : a 

 common species is Ccenobita rugosa, one individual 

 of which was of such large size that it could not find 

 a shell big enough for a house, and so had accom- 

 modated itself with an empty coconut : another in- 

 dividual was so big that it seemed to have given up 

 hope of finding a house, and was wandering about 

 recklessly with its tail behind it all unprotected, just 

 like a little Birgus latro. Mosquitoes and flies were 

 very troublesome, but the only insect that I shall here 

 set down was a little white-and-green Mantis found in 

 the large white-and-greenish flowers of a Pancratium : 

 so exactly matched were the colours of the insect and 

 the flower, that had I not happened to shake the 

 creature out of its ambush, where it was lying in 

 wait like a spider for its prey, I should never have 

 noticed it. Lastly, I must not forget to mention 

 some little gastropod mollusks, probably a species 

 of Succmea, that I found crawling on the moss 

 that encrusted the palm trunks ; but, though I have 

 looked everywhere for the specimens that I collected, 

 I cannot now find them. 



