I have before alluded to a crab which lives on the cocoa-nuts; it
is very common on all parts of the dry land, and grows to a
monstrous size: it is closely allied or identical with the Birgos
latro. The front pair of legs terminate in very strong and heavy
pincers, and the last pair are fitted with others weaker and much
narrower. It would at first be thought quite impossible for a crab
to open a strong cocoa-nut covered with the husk; but Mr. Liesk
assures me that he has repeatedly seen this effected. The crab
begins by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that
end under which the three eye-holes are situated; when this is
completed, the crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on one
of the eye-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. I think this is as curious
a case of instinct as ever I heard of, and likewise of adaptation
in structure between two objects apparently so remote from each
other in the scheme of nature as a crab and a cocoa-nut tree. The
Birgos is diurnal in its habits; but every night it is said to pay
a visit to the sea, no doubt for the purpose of moistening its
branchiae.
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