A TALK ABOUT CRABS 
113 
prepare themselves beds composed of coco¬ 
nut fibre and husks. The natives of their 
habitat, knowing the habits of the crabs, dig 
down to the bottom of these homes and carry 
off the fibre so diligently gathered by the 
crustaceans, utilizing it for their own purposes. 
They will also eat its flesh, the fat stored on 
the under surface of the tail of the adult crabs 
being considered a special delicacy, while if 
the same be melted it forms a valuable 
oil. 
Although it has for long been said that the 
robber crabs were in the habit of climbing 
coco-nut palms for the purpose of procuring 
the fruit, yet many people in the past were 
inclined to doubt the veracity of the statement. 
Recent observations, however, together with 
photographic records, leave no doubt that 
the crabs do actually climb trees, but it has 
been suggested that this is done merely for 
the purpose of securing the fibre and not as a 
means of obtaining the nuts, numbers of which 
are usually to be found lying upon the ground. 
This theory would certainly appear to be the 
correct one, for we must remember that the 
coco-nuts as we see them in shops are but 
the fruits that were formerly enclosed within 
large, hard, elliptical, and three-sided envelopes; 
and to expect a crab to be able to break 
H 
