48 
HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. 
when apprehensive of assault, uses its powerful claws “ to 
strike transversely, as a mower uses his scythe.” A speci- 
men which Mr. Gosse kept he found to be shy and recluse. 
“ He at once slid into the most obscure recess he could find, 
beneath the dark shadow of two pieces of rock that formed 
an arch. For some days he remained gloomily in his new 
castle ; but at length he ventured out, under the cover of 
night, and would wander about the floor of the tank. But 
he never lost his cautious suspicion, and the approach of the 
candle was usually the signal for a rush back to his dark 
retreat. He w r as a fit representative of one of those giants 
that nursery tradition tells of, as infesting Cambria and 
Cornwall, ‘in good King Arthur's days/ Gloomy and 
grim, strong, ferocious, crafty, and cruel, he would squat 
in his obscure lair, watching for the unsuspecting tenants 
of the tank to stray near, or would now and again rush 
out, and seize them with fatal force and precision. As the 
Giants Grim of old spared not ordinary-sized men for any 
sympathy of race, so our giant Crab had no respect for 
lesser Crabs, except a taste for their flesh. I had two or 
three full-grown Soldier Crabs ; themselves warriors of no 
mean prowess ; two, at least, of these fell a prey to the 
fierce Fiddler. His manner of proceeding was regular and 
