Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/79

48 bottom may be very narrow, and I am not sure but that the Crab likes it all the better, for he is expressly formed for such a dwelling; his body is particularly flat, his legs move in the same plane, and his claws, though large for his size, are remarkably flat also, thinned out, as it were, to an edge; so that the whole animal has somewhat the appearance of having been crushed flat by the pressure of the stone under which he lives. Here then is a beautiful adaptation of structure to habit; but there is more of the same kind. The Crabs are carnivorous, and in general they are very active, wandering continually in search of prey, which they seize when observed with their claws. How is our little Broad-claw to live, clinging fast to his cranny, which he forsakes not from one month's end to another. Like the thrifty housewives of London, who do not go to market, but have their bread and meat and groceries brought to their door. Let us see how this is managed. Professor Bell in his beautiful "History of British Crustacea," thus alludes to one character of this genus. "External pedipalps greatly developed; the second joint very large, rounded, with a single tooth on the outer anterior angle; the third joint much smaller, irregularly trigonal, and with the remaining joints fringed with long hair at the edges." In fact, however, all these joints are fringed with hair, which curves inwards, but its use in the economy of the animal has not yet, so far as I am aware, been made known.

Watching a Broad-claw beneath a stone close to the side of my tank, I noticed that his long antennæ were continually flirted about; these are doubtless