THE WOOD-BORING SHRIMP. 
5i 
from the tree, surrounded with a thick massy envelope of fibrous 
substance, which, when stripped from the nut itself, is employed 
for many useful purposes. How the creature is to feed on the 
kernel seems quite a mystery ; and, prima facie , for a crab to 
extract the cocoa-nut from its envelope, to pierce the thick and 
stubborn shell, and to feed upon the enclosed kernel, seems an 
utterly impossible task. Indeed, had not the feat been watched 
by credible witnesses, no one who was acquainted with the 
habits and powers of the Crustacea would have credited such an 
assertion. Yet Mr. Darwin, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennett, and 
other observant men, have watched the habits of the creature, 
and all agree in their accounts. 
According to Mr. Darwin, the crab seizes upon the fallen 
cocoa-nuts, and with its enormous pincers tears away the outer 
covering, reducing it to a mass of ravelled threads. This sub- 
stance is carried by the crabs into their holes, for the purpose of 
forming a bed whereon they can rest when they change their 
shells, and the Malays are in the habit of robbing the burrows of 
these stored fibres, which are ready picked for them, and which 
they use as ‘junk,’ i.e. a rough kind of oakum, which is em- 
ployed for caulking the seams of vessels, making mats, and 
similar purposes. When the crab has freed the nut from the 
husk, it introduces the small end of a claw into one of the little 
holes which are found at one end of the cocoa-nut, and by 
turning the claw backwards and forwards, as if it were a bradawl, 
the crab contrives to scoop out the soft substance of the nut. 
Passing by many other species of Crustacea which burrow in 
the earth, or mud, or sand, we come to a very remarkable being, 
which makes its habitation in solid wood. This is the Wood- 
boring Shrimp ( Chelura terebrans), one of the sessile-eyed 
Crustacea, nearly related to the well-known sand-hopper, which 
is so plentiful on our coasts. 
Although very small, it is terribly destructive, and does no 
small damage to wooden piles driven into the bed of the sea. 
It is furnished with a peculiar rasping instrument, by means of 
which it is enabled to scrape away the wood and form a little 
