singular crustacean, frequently seen on the
shores of the coco-islands, and sometimes
although rarely by day, climbing upon the
coco-palms. The crusted animal is something
between a crab and a lobster. From the
point of the claw to the end of the abdomen
he generally measures about twenty
inches. The colour of this crab or lobster is
sky-blue, shading into white, with white
patches speckling the blue of the carapace,
and of the plates of the abdomen. He has
more of the general form of a lobster than of
a crab. Natives of the coco-islands have
assured me that individual crustaceans of this
species are sometimes met with, measuring
from three to four feet from the point of the
claw to the end of the abdomen. The colour
— blue, it is said,— sometimes passes into red,
and the white into yellow.

The natives call this crab the sepoy-crab,
just as British coast-folks call a similar crustacean
the soldier-crab. He is the soldier-crab
of the tropical islands. Persons familiar
with the soldier-crab of the British coasts
can imagine the appearance of the largest
sepoy-crabs, by supposing the soldier-crab of
a size measured by feet instead of inches. The
British soldier-crab has a naked and curling
abdomen, and must find a shell to protect it
from the grabs of his enemies. The Indian
sepoy-crab has three rows of rudimentary
plates partly covering and protecting the
upper part of his abdomen. The British
coast-folks embody a characteristic in the
manners of the British species when they
call him a soldier, for he is always ready to
fight all comers, and is especially amusing to
coast-boys when battling with his own
species. The sepoy-crab is a far more formidable
soldier. When surprised by men
upon a tree he snaps the pincers of his formidable
left claw to announce to them that
he is ready for battle. He seems, however,
more desirous of frightening than of fighting
his enemies; for, notwithstanding his
menaces, he retreats very rapidly. The
sepoy-crabs, about a couple of feet long,
are not objects of fear to the natives; but,
they speak with awe of the rare monsters
which exceed three feet in length, and
one of whom is said to have once stolen a
child.

Mr. Cuming frequently found sepoy-crabs
on Lord Hood's Island in the Pacific. Dr.
Charles Reynaud, of Port Louis, Mauritius,
tells me that the sepoy-crab is found in the
islands of Liou Kiou, Keeling, Diego Garcia,
Six Islands, and Agalega. The sepoy-crabs live
in holes among the roots of the scolopendres,
mape-trees, and coco-palms. The frequent
or almost continual rains on those islands
keep the holes always full of water, and surround
them with little pools. The blacks of
the islands of the Mauritius say, that when the
sepoy-crab is in want of salt water in the dry
season, he goes down to the sea carrying an
empty coco-nut between the teeth of his little
claw; and, after filling the nut with salt water,
carries it away to his hole.

Linnæus, Herbst, and Cuvier, appear to
have received with some doubt the accounts
which voyagers gave them of crabs climbing
trees and eating fruits. There is, in fact,
considerable difficulty in understanding how
animals formed with gills to breathe in
water like fishes, can live in air, and respire
upon trees, as if they were provided with
lungs, like birds and monkeys. M. Milne
Edwards has, however, made an observation
upon the respiratory organs of the
sepoy-crabs, which greatly diminishes the
physiological difficulty. He discovered in
the carapace, a spongy vegetation which
maintains the humidity of the gills by perspiring
water upon them. Similar contrivances
have been observed in a variety of
gilled animals, which from the nature of
their habits, are occasionally exposed in the
air. There are fishes which perish quickly in a
limited quantity of sea-water, and which
can subsist a long time in moist air. The
folds of the membrane which lines the gill-cavity
of eels, and of the fishes liable to be
abandoned by the tide in rock crevices,
contain reserves of water in pockets, vessels,
cells, or spongy masses, which keep up a
constant moisture in the gills. The American
land crabs have reservoirs inside the
carapace. The sepoy-crab differs from all
the others by having fungosities, or sponges,
instead of reservoirs. The sepoy-crabs
usually live on the fallen fruits which
they find about the roots of trees. When
they cannot find fruits, and are pressed by
hunger, they mount, generally in the night,
to the nuts which will not descend to them.
The fact of their climbing is established by
an abundance of testimony, and recently, in
addition to different voyagers corroborating,
each other during the last century, living
witnesses have appeared: such as Mr. Cuming
of London, and Dr. Charles Reynaud of Port
Louis. Dr. Charles Reynaud has assured
me that he has repeatedly seen the sepoy-crab
on the coco-palms during the day,
although his promenades are generally nocturnal,
and in shiny moonlight nights.

When the sepoy-crab has climbed up the
trunk of the coco-palm, he detaches the nut
by tearing the fibres of the stalk until the
nut falls. After the fall of the nut he descends
the trunk slowly, and searches for
the nut, which he drags, when he finds it,
to the mouth of his hole. Three or four
days are spent by him in patiently and
laboriously tearing off fibre after fibre,
until the husk is completely denuded of them.
He is too provident, I won't say civilised,
an animal, to wait until one nut is done
before he goes in search of another. On the
contrary, he is always peeling as he is always eating his nuts. He spends his time
in these alternate operations. He searches
about the trees, or upon the trees, for a