CRUSTACEANS. 
489 
° V0 ^ eir neighbour. Those animals, in short, are very quarrel- 
some. Two hermits cannot meet without exhibiting hostile inten- 
lous > eac ^ extends his long pincers, and seems to try to touch the 
°ther, much as a spider does when it seeks to seize a fly on its most 
Vulnerable side, but each, finding the other armed in proof, and per- 
ectly protected, though eager to fight, usually adopt the better 
part ol valour, and prudently withdraw. They often have true 
passages ol arms, nevertheless, in which claws are spread out, 
■'nd displayed in the most threatening manner ; the two adversaries 
tumbling head over heels, and rolling one upon the other, but they 
t more frightened than hurt. Nevertheless, Mr. Gosse once wit- 
nessed a struggle which had a more tragic end. A hermit crab met 
u brother Bernhard pleasantly lodged in a shell much more spacious 
than his own. He seized it by the head with his powerful claws, tore 
T horn its asylum with the speed ot lightning, and took its pjlace not less 
Promptly, leaving the dispossessed unfortunate struggling on the sand 
111 convulsions of agony. “ Our battles,” says Charles Bonnet, “ have 
r arely such important objects in view : they fight each other for a house.” 
A pretty little zoophyte, the Cloak Anemone ( Adamsia paUiuta), 
*°v es to live with the hermit, and exhibits sympathies almost inexplicable, 
m aquariums this anemone attaches itself almost always to the shell 
' v Mch serves as the dwelling of the Crustacean : and it may be looked 
u P°n as certain that where the hermit is there will the anemone be 
|°und. These two creatures seem to live in perfect and intelligent 
harmony together, for Mr. Gosse’s observations establish tlie existence 
. a cordial and reciprocal affection between them. This learned and 
Il! diligent observer describes the proceedings of a hermit which re- 
quired a new habitation ; he saw it detach, in the most deliberate but 
elective manner, its dear companion, the anemone, from the old shell, 
r ansport it with every care and precaution, and place it comfortably 
j’Pun the new shell, and then with its large pincers give to its well- 
'doved many little taps, as if to fix it there the more quickly. Another 
®P e cies of Bernhardus makes a companion of the mantled anemone. 
And we are assured,” says Moquin-Tandon, “ that when the crab dies 
ltfi inconsolable friend is not long in succumbing also.” 
“ Is there not here much more than what our modem pliysiologisis 
^ automatic movements, the results of reflex sensorial action ?” says 
C 
^osse. 
: The more I study the lower animals, the more firmly am 
