THE LIVING SPECIMENS IN TIIE AQUARIUM. 1()7 
ped them, ‘ naked as their mothers bore them,’ into a glass vase of sea-water. 
They did not seem comfortable, and carefully avoided each other. I then 
placed one of the empty shells (first breaking off its spiral point) between 
them, and at once the contest commenced. One made direct for the shell, 
poked into it an inquiring claw, and having satisfied his cautious mind that 
all was safe, slipped in his tail with ludicrous agility, and, fastening on by 
his hooks, scuttled away rejoicing. He was not left long in undisturbed 
possession. His rival approached with strictly dishonorable intentions; 
and they both walked round and round the vase, eyeing each other with 
settled malignity.” 
Mr. Lewes then goes on to describe how the hermits contested for the pos¬ 
session of the shell; and again for the better of two shells, when such were 
presented to them. And in the following manner he showed that hermit 
crabs do not, as has been hitherto supposed, devour whelks before taking 
forcible possession of their tenements. Having placed a shell, containing a 
living whelk, in the vase— 
11 The hermit crab at once clutched it, and poked in his interrogatory 
claw, which, touching the operculum of the whelk, made that animal with¬ 
draw, and leave an empty space, into which the crab popped his tail. In a 
few minutes the whelk, tired of this confinement in his own house, and all 
alarm being over, began to protrude himself, and in doing so gently pushed 
the hermit before him. In vain did the intruder, feeling himself slip¬ 
ping, cling fiercely to the shell; with slow, but irresistible pressure, the 
mollusk ejected him This was repeated several times, till at length the 
hermit gave up in despair, and contented himself with his former shell.” 
So, it is consoling to think that the hermit crab takes possession only of 
empty tenements, legitimately “to be let,” and does not eject and devour 
the rightful owners! 
Crabs are very dangerous characters, and are likely to give the keeper of 
the sea-menagerie a vast amount of trouble. They have a horrible idea of 
fighting among themselves, and tyrannizing over each other; but worse 
than this, is their voracity and cruelty towards their weaker fellow-citizens. 
The large kind, or green crab, should be entirely avoided, for besides their 
voracity, they are of a terribly restless nature, and, frequently escaping from 
the “ durance vile” of their watery home, introduce themselves unbidden 
among the visitors in the drawing-room, sitting down on foot-stools and 
chairs, and in other respects manifesting a disagreeable and intrusive char¬ 
acter. The hermit crab, though testy and churlish—a sort of marine Timon 
of Athens—is generally quiet enough, and will take up his sojourn, with 
edifying gravity, in an empty whelk-shell. The squinados, or spider-crabs, 
are very useful as scavengers, being more energetic in that way than even 
the sea-snails. A successful aquarium-founder relates the following anec¬ 
dote of the voracity and the churlish disposition of crabs: 
“ The hermits are very hungry creatures. I put one into a bowl, where 
I had a few bits of rock and weed, and one or two shell-fish. T laid before 
