This view seems to obtain confirmation from the fact that the Crabs of the genus _Gelasimus_, or “Fiddler-crabs,” which are near relations of the ocypode Crabs, and, like them, live in burrows in large companies, and are exposed to the same enemies, which they avoid in the same way by burrowing, have no stridulating mechanism, but the sexes are strikingly different. This is especially so in the case of the nippers, or chelipeds. These, in the female, are slender and much shorter than the legs, being used mainly for feeding. In the adult male one of these “hands” is often twice as big as the body itself! “Many uses,” remarks Colonel Alcock, “have been assigned to this enormous, lop-sided organ: some say that it is used as a stopper to barricade the mouth of the burrow, others that it is a sort of cradle or bridal-couch upon which the female reclines—the male, in this case, literally bestowing his hand upon the female; but from observations of _Gelasimus annulipes_, the species which most frequents the Godavari mud-flats, I believe that it primarily serves as a war-club, for the males indulge in interminable tournaments for the hand of the female; and secondarily, for it is of a most beautiful cherry-red colour, as an ornament to attract and delight the latter capricious sex. “Landing one afternoon in March upon a cheerful mud-flat of the Godavari sea-face, I was bewildered by the sight of a multitude of small pink objects twinkling in the sun, and always, like will-o’-the-wisps, disappearing as I came near to them, but flashing brightly on ahead as far as the eye could reach. It was not until I stayed perfectly quiet that I discovered that these twinkling gems were the brandished nippers of a host of the males of _Gelasimus annulipes_. By long watching, I found out that the little creatures were waving their nippers with a purpose—the purpose apparently being to attract the attention of an occasional infrequent female, who, uncertain, coy, and hard to please, might be seen unconcernedly sifting the sand at the mouth of her burrow. If this demure little flirt happened to creep near the burrow of one of the males, then that favoured individual became frantic with excitement, dancing round his domain on tip-toe and waving his great cherry hand as if demented. Then, if another male, burning with jealousy, showed a desire to interfere, the two puny little suitors would make savage back-handed swipes at one another, wielding their cumbrous hands as if they had no weight at all. Unfortunately, though I spent many a precious hour on the watch from time to time, I could never see that these combats came to anything; the males seemed always to be in a state of passionate excitement, and the females to be always indifferent and unconcerned; and though the dismembered chelipeds of vanquished males could often be seen lying on the battle-field, I never had the satisfaction of beholding a good