483 



CHARLES DARWIN 



space, composed of the finest white sand: it is quite level 

 and is only covered by the tide at high water; from this 

 large bay smaller creeks penetrate the surrounding woods. 

 To see a field of glittering white sand, representing water, 

 with the cocoa-nut trees extending their tall and waving 

 trunks around the margin, formed a singular and very pretty 

 view. 



I have before alluded to a crab which lives on the cocoa- 

 nuts; it is very common on all parts of the dry land, and 

 grows to a monstrous size: it is closely allied or identical 

 with the Birgos latro. The front pair of legs terminate in 

 very strong and heavy pincers, and the last pair are fitted 

 with others weaker and much narrower. It would at first 

 be thought quite impossible for a crab to open a strong 

 cocoa-nut covered with the husk ; but Mr. Liesk assures me 

 that he has repeatedly seen this effected. The crab begins 

 by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that 

 end under which the three eye-holes are situated ; when this 

 is completed, the crab commences hammering with its heavy 

 claws on one of the eye-holes till an opening is made. Then 

 turning round its body, by the aid of its posterior and nar- 

 row pair of pincers, it extracts the white albuminous sub- 

 stance. I think this is as curious a case of instinct as ever 

 I heard of, and likewise of adaptation in structure between 

 two objects apparently so remote from each other in the 

 scheme of nature, as a crab and a cocoa-nut tree. The 

 Birgos is diurnal in its habits; but every night it is _ said to 

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

 its branchise. The young are likewise hatched, and live for 

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

 which they hollow out beneath the roots of trees ; and where 

 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 this, and collect the 

 fibrous mass to use as junk. These crabs are very good to 

 eat ; moreover, under the tail of the larger ones there is a 

 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 crawls up the cocoa-nut trees 

 for the purpose of stealing the nuts: I very much doubt the 



