90 
ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
plying energetically his great nippers and legs in making 
for a particular point in the algm, or bunch of wrack. 
What is his object, we wonder ? No other than the capture 
of a weaker brother, and making a lordly feast of his own 
kith and kin. Will the cannibal succeed in his design ? 
For a time, at any rate, he seems to be foiled; but he is 
again lost beneath the fronds in pursuit of his prey. On 
the far off side, the hunted little fellow emerges and runs a 
foot or two out into the sand, but he speedily finds himself 
unsafe, and quickly returns to his hiding. He will elude 
the enemy if he can ; but here he emerges again, this time 
on our side, and is actually making tracks towards us with 
as much speed as he can command. Ha ! but he is 
followed by the ruthless pursuer, and the race for life is 
evidently a hopeless one, for the speed of the larger one is 
fast overtaking him ; the small one, however, bravely main- 
tains his pace. But see, exactly beneath our faces, he has 
made a sudden stop, and allows himself to be captured 
without a struggle. Pouncing upon him like a cat jumping 
on a mouse, the larger one surrounds the little thing with his 
eight great legs, and inserting his murderous nippers beneath 
the edge of the upper shell or lid, proceeds to split him open, 
and make a sumptuous supper of the tender interior of his 
fellow; and this explains the reason why so many little 
crabs in this condition are found along our shores. 
During the months of spring and early summer these 
creatures are to be found carrying about with them a load 
of spawn or eggs, immediately beneath the flap or cover of 
the abdomen, very often called the pouch. These eggs are 
encased in a sort of bag or thin capsule, where they grow 
to about the size of the roe of the haddock, and as they 
increase in size, they are forced out of the capsule, and 
spread themselves along the flap of the pouch, where they 
