Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . t. He is out a house-hunting—that is a literal fact. See, he has found an emptyshell. It is not so handsome as the one he now occupies,but it is a little larger. Look, how he almost lifts it upamong his ten feet, every one of which is an interestedinspector, as each must bear its part in sustaining theestablishment. Now he rolls it round and round, allover and over, delicately manipulating its sculpture occa-sionally ; he is not only testing its specific gravity like aphilosopher, but also seems
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . t. He is out a house-hunting—that is a literal fact. See, he has found an emptyshell. It is not so handsome as the one he now occupies,but it is a little larger. Look, how he almost lifts it upamong his ten feet, every one of which is an interestedinspector, as each must bear its part in sustaining theestablishment. Now he rolls it round and round, allover and over, delicately manipulating its sculpture occa-sionally ; he is not only testing its specific gravity like aphilosopher, but also seems to have an eye to appearances. 84 NATURAL HISTORY READER. Now comes the most essential, the inspection of the inte-rior. Will it fit ? That is the chief consideration. Heinserts his longest finger, and thoroughly probes the wholematter. One more trial—and now it seems that the an-tenna?, or feelers, enter into the consultation. And whatan amount of feeling deliberation does this step involve !Well, the thing appears to be satisfactory. It is evidentlydecided that the new house will Hwmit-(Jrab. 3. And now comes the most trying time of all—formoving is a trying time. But Pagurus is actuated byconsiderations that fall not to the lot of migratory mor-tals of the bipedal sort. His accountability is of the ten-talent order. With his eyes he surveys the entire ! Yes, it is so ! lie has moved, and settled, andhas got the house all to rights. The whole thing wasdone in the twinkling of an eye. It vacates the old house,whisks its tail round, and enters the new one backward, asif shot into it from a gun. In fact, unless watching in-tently, the whole movement will elude the eye, like a trick LOW LIFE IN THE SEA. 85 of legerdemain. And the cause is not far to seek. If thatsoft, nude, defenseless body were exposed but for an in-stant, it might become the prey of some darting fish. 4. These hermit-crabs are highly pugnacious. We oncetook a pair of them that we s
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