62 
NATURE NOTES 
The tide is coming in, but will not be at the full for another 
two hours, and the mud at the margin of the trench is not yet 
covered with water. Numbers of small crabs belonging to the 
genus Gelasimus are scuttling over the surface of the mud, most 
of them having the right claw as large as the rest of the body 
and the corresponding claw on the other side very small. Some 
as they run wave their large claws about as though beckoning 
one another, whence comes their popular name of “ calling 
crabs”; but others are sweeping the surface of the mud with 
them, probably in search of food — at any rate the little claw is 
very active after each sweep. 
The path we are walking along has been raised by the earth 
thrown up in digging the trench, which is on our right, the low 
land on our left is flooded every spring tide, which seems to 
favour the growth of that vivid green shrubby plant, which 
covers the low land as thickly as a moor is covered with heather ; 
for it grows no farther than the extreme limit of high water, and 
much of it is washed by the sea whenever the tide is in. Its 
thick fleshy leaves of a light green colour, changing here and 
there to golden yellow, remind one of samphire, but it bears a 
sort of fleshy catkin by way of flower, and has a salt flavour and 
a strong, somewhat unpleasant smell. This “ crab grass,” as the 
negroes call it, covers many miles of the coast and gives a 
characteristic colour to the scenery. 
On the right-hand side of the path we pass some spiny 
mimosa trees about 8 feet in height, which resemble hawthorn 
trees in general appearance. The closely set yellow balls of 
flowers have the same sweet scent as the common European 
mimosa, but are about an inch in diameter and grow singly. 
Look yonder, on the other side of the trench there is another kind 
of crab, a handsome fellow, too, with a purple shell and scarlet 
claws, in the mouth of a hole at the root of that courida tree ! 
A little farther on the footprints of a crab dog in the mud at the 
edge of the trench catch our eyes. Crab- dogs ( Canis cancrivorus ) 
are strongly disliked by the sugar-planter, for although they are 
said to eat rats, they certainly destroy a great deal of cane. 
They bite the canes near the root and chew four or five inches of 
the stem, so that the cane falls over on one side and usually dies. 
On following up the track we come to a stretch of mud covered 
with their footprints; evidently they have been searching for food 
here, probably crabs, or perhaps some of these fish we see 
swimming in the trench to our right with half their heads out of 
the water. We throw a stick at them and they skip right out of 
the water, and on touching the water again give another skip, 
and another, and another, much in the same w 7 ay as a flat stone 
does when a schoolboy is playing ducks and drakes. Should a 
hop bring one of them on to the mud, it is not in the least dis- 
concerted, but skips back again, seeming to be as much at its ease 
on the mud as it is in the water. A negro with a double-peaked 
beard is coming towards us with a casting-net hanging over his 
