THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
5i 
The Diogenes Hermit Crab is a species of the pagurus bernhardus just 
described, and differs in only a few particulars, one of which is its habit of 
climbing trees, and another is in the foetid odor which it has the power to 
emit. When frightened or captured they give forth a noise somewhat resem¬ 
bling the squeak of a green frog when it is first taken. They spend con¬ 
siderable of their time on shore, being vegetable as well as carnivorous feeders. 
Their principal haunts are about the shores of Brazil and the West Indies. 
The Robber Crab, which out of regard for its cunning in smashing and 
eating cocoanuts is often called the cocoanut crab , is found in many parts of 
the Indian Ocean, being most numerous about 
cocoanut plantations. The manner in which 
it breaks the shell of a cocoanut is thus de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Darwin: 
“ It would at first be thought impossible 
for a crab to open a strong cocoanut covered 
with the husk, but Mr. Liesk assures me he 
has repeatedly seen the operation effected. 
The crab begins by tearing the husk, fibre 
by fibre, and always at that end where the 
three eye-holes are situated. When this is 
accomplished, the animal commences ham¬ 
mering with its heavy claws on one of these 
holes till an opening is made ; then turning 
round its body, by the aid of its posterior and 
narrow pair of pincers, it extracts the white 
albuminous substance of the nut.” 
Opposed to this statement of Mr. Darwin, 
which he does not confirm, having merely 
given the facts as related to him, is the affir¬ 
mation of many travellers, who pretend to 
have witnessed the feats described, that the 
crab, after effecting an entrance through the 
soft eye of the cocoanut, fixes the sharp point 
of a claw in the aperature, with the other 
mandible pressed so tightly against the other 
end of the nut that it is held fast, while the 
crab dashes it violently against a stone until the 
shell is broken asunder. This is more prob¬ 
able than the account furnished by Mr. Liesk. 
The robber crab is the largest of the genera, frequently measuring three 
feet in length, with proportionate thickness of body. Its favorite retreat is near 
the seashore in a hole which it digs in the ground, usually nt the root of a 
tree, to a depth somewhat below the sea surface, where it hides during the day 
and only sallies out after nightfall. In walking it has a very curious and 
awkward gait, going along on its tiptoes, after the manner of sand-fiddlers, in 
which respect it resembles a crab, though it possesses well defined characteris¬ 
tics of the lobster, to which it is certainly closely allied. Some persons have 
attributed to it the power of climbing palm trees to browse upon the young 
shoots, and a writer in “St. Nicholas” avers that he saw one, while suspended to 
PALM CRAB SEIZING A GOAT. 
