488 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
discovered that their shell is the dwelling of a crustacean, not a mollusc. 
The Lernhard lives alone in its little citadel, like the hermit in his cell 
or the sentinel in his box. Hence the name of hermit and soldier. 
When our crustacean outgrows its borrowed habitation, it sets out 
in seaioli ol another shell, a little larger, and better suited for its 
increased size. 
The hermit often avails itself, as we have said, of empty shells 
abandoned by their owners ; when the tide retires these seldom fail 
them, and the hermit may be seen examining, turning, and re-turning, 
and even trying its new domicile. It glides slowly along on its abdomen, 
which is large and somewhat distorted, sometimes in one shell, some- 
times m another, looking defiantly all round it, and returning very 
quickly to its ancient lodging if the new one does not turn out to be 
perfectly comfortable, often trying a great number, as a man might try 
many new clothes before suiting himself. In its successive removals 
the little sybarite chooses a hermitage more and more spacious, 
according to its taste or caprice in colour or architecture. The cunning 
little denture chooses its mansion, now grey or yellow, now red 
or brown, globular or cylindrical, in the form of a spiral or of a 
tun, toothed or crenulate, with trenchant edge or pointed ter- 
minations; hut, as a rule, our crustacean Diogenes houses itself in 
spirals ol considerable length, as in Cerethium, Buccinum, or Murex. 
The hermit is very timid; at the least noise it shrinks into its 
shell and squats itself, without motion, drawing in its smaller claws 
and closing the door with its large ones, the latter being often covered 
with hairs, tubercles, or with teeth. In short, our prudent cenobite 
clings so closely to the bottom of its retreat, that we might pull it to 
pieces without getting it out entire; its tail is transformed into a sort 
of sucker, by the aid of which it attaches itself firmly to the walls of 
its habitation. It is at once strong and voracious, eating with much 
lelish the dead fishes and fragments of molluscs and annelids which 
come in its way. Nor does it hesitate to attack and devour living 
animals. When introduced into an aquarium, it has sometimes thrown 
it into the utmost disorder by its insatiable rapacity. It has been 
possible sometimes to jireserve harmony among many individuals in- 
habiting the same reservoir; hut this has been owing rather to 
the impossibility ol their attacking each other, in consequence of 
cunningly-devised barricades, than to their mildness of character or 
