deep burrow in the ground to dwell in, and with the shredded fibres of the cocoanut husk, which he has torn up, he makes a thick soft bed at the bottom of it to lie on. One would think with all this that he had said good-bye to the sea for good and all, and would never want to go back to it. But this is not the case. Like other crabs, these strange ones breathe through branchiæ or gills, as a fish does, and in order for them to do so these must be kept moist. The peculiarity of all land-crabs is that their gills remain moist for a long time, but at the end of this time, when they are beginning to get dry, they have to moisten them again. Every night, therefore, the cocoanut crab pays a visit to the sea, and has a cool, refreshing bathe in it. For a little while he is a marine creature again, as his ancestors were before him, but when he has moistened his gills, he goes back to his palm-trees and cocoanuts. This great strange crab grows to two feet in length, is stout in proportion, and has a fantastic appearance, which it is difficult to describe. It walks very high on two long stout pairs of legs, whilst a pair or two of little ones behind them are too short to touch the ground, and so dangle in the air. Its claws are enormous, its thorax very peculiar, its antennæ are like those of a lobster, and its body behind more like a hornet’s than a crab’s—at least in a picture. What it really resembles is a hermit-crab, to which it is closely related; only to see the resemblance one must take the hermit-crab out of its borrowed shell. CHAPTER II NATURE’S PARASITES—PUSS-MOTH CATERPILLAR AND ICHNEUMON-FLY—CATERPILLAR DEFENCES—WASPS AND THEIR VICTIMS—A SPIDER CAUGHT—ANTS THAT ARE OGRES—OSPREY AND EAGLE—GULLS AND SKUAS—PEEWIT AND BLACK-HEADED GULL.