There is one lizard and two
waders, namely, a snipe and curlew. Of plants there are nineteen
species, including a fern; and some of these are the same with
those growing here, though on a spot so immensely remote, and in a
different ocean.
The long strips of land, forming the linear islets, have been
raised only to that height to which the surf can throw fragments of
coral, and the wind heap up calcareous sand. The solid flat of
coral rock on the outside, by its breadth, breaks the first
violence of the waves, which otherwise, in a day, would sweep away
these islets and all their productions. The ocean and the land seem
here struggling for mastery: although terra firma has obtained a
footing, the denizens of the water think their claim at least
equally good. In every part one meets hermit crabs of more than one
species, carrying on their backs the shells which they have stolen
from the neighbouring beach. (20/6. The large claws or pincers of
some of these crabs are most beautifully adapted, when drawn back,
to form an operculum to the shell, nearly as perfect as the proper
one originally belonging to the molluscous animal. I was assured,
and as far as my observations went I found it so, that certain
species of the hermit-crab always use certain species of shells.
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