14 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
crabs mostly, for as they grow older they venture to 
retire further from low water mark, where the sand is 
dry and will not hold together in balls. Then they 
bring it up in armfuls and toss it to a distance. But, 
old or young, their houses are swamped and obliterated 
twice in every twenty-four hours, and twice dug out 
again ; from which you may judge what a life of labour 
the sand crab lives. 
He is, I think, the noblest of his race. Living on 
the open champaign of the white sea-shore, he learns 
to trust for safety to the keenness of his sight and the 
fleetness of his limbs. Each eye is a miniature watch- 
tower, or observatory, and his legs span seven times 
the length of his body. When he runs he seems to 
be on wheels : you can fancy you hear them whirr. 
But, keen as is his sight and amazing as is his speed, 
he more than needs it all ; for, alas ! he is very tasty 
and all the world knows it. In his early days the 
sandpipers and shore birds, nay, the very crows and, 
proh pudor ! my turkeys patrol the water’s edge, and 
he scarcely dares to show his face by daylight. Then, 
as he grows beyond the fear of petty enemies, he comes 
within the ken of greater ones. The kite, sailing high 
