CRUSTACEANS. 
487 
or instinct makes it seek the shelter of some empty shell, of a shape and 
size corresponding to its own. When it fails to find one empty, it does 
not hesitate to attack some living testacean, which it kills without pity 
or remorse, and takes possession of its habitation without other form of 
process. Once master of the shell (Fig. 337), it introduces itself) 
stern foremost, and installs itself as in an entrenchment, where it 
is established so firmly that it moves about with it more or less briskly, 
according to its comparative size. 
The Pagurians belong to the Anomourous family of Crustaceans, of 
which there are several genera, and a considerable number of species, 
the animal economy of which have been ably commented upon by 
Mr. Broderip. “ Their backs,” he says, “are towards the arch of the 
turbinated shell occupied by them, and their well-armed nippers 
and first two pairs of succeeding feet generally project beyond the 
mouth of it. The short feet rest upon the polished surface of the 
columella, and the outer surface of their termination, especially that 
of the first pair, is in some species most admirably rough-shod, to give 
' the soldier ’ a firm footing when lie makes his sortie, or to add to the 
resistance of the crustacoous holders at the end of his abdomen, or tail, 
when he is attacked, and wishes to withdraw into his castle. On 
passing the finger downwards over the terminations of these feet, they 
feel smooth ; but if the finger be passed upwards, the roughness is 
instantly perceived. The same sort of structure (it is as rough as a 
file) is to be seen in the smaller caudal holders.” In another species 
of Pagurus, from the Mauritius, which was nearly a foot in length, 
he found a great number of transverse rows, armed with acetabula, or 
suckers ; these were visible without the aid of a glass, which must 
very much assist the hold of the Pagurus. 
During the feeding and breeding-time, the hermit throws out his 
bead and feet, and especially his great claws, and feels his way with 
bis two antennae, which are long and slender. When he walks he 
books on with his pincers to the nearest body, and draws his shell 
after him, as the snail does his. But the undefended parts of the 
body always remain under cover. At low water the hermits spread 
themselves over the rocky shore, and the spectator thinks he sees a 
great number of shells which move in all directions, with allurements 
different from that which belongs to their essentially slow and 
measured race. If they are touched they stop suddenly, and it is soon 
