Birgus The Robber: The Palm 
Crab 
Islands. 
HE palm crab, or robber crab, as it 
X is also called (Birgus latro ), is certainly 
an ugly fellow, but must not be judged entirely 
by his outward appearance. In the South Seas 
we especially admire him when, in place of the 
blue and grey tints that were his in life, he has 
changed in the oven or pot to a lovely lobster¬ 
like red. In addition to the names above 
mentioned, he is known also to travellers as the 
“coconut-eating crab” and the “giant land 
crab,” while to the white traders and natives of 
the South Seas he is simply uu or Uga po, “ the 
night crab,” something that one can smack one’s 
lips at when your native cook disinters him 
from his mummy-like bandages of coconut 
leaves and reveals him with body of bright red 
shell and pendulous tail of blue fat. For, 
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