larger than crumbs, fell and settled on the rocks below. Then I saw that
a smaller Crab, with long pincers, was hiding under a rock. As the
crumbs fell, he reached out his pincers and picked them up, one by one.
Each bit was gravely carried to his mouth, and tucked in, and then he
reached out for another. Though I was very close to the Crab, I could
hardly see the tiny scraps which he was able to pick up so easily.

One of the strangest Crabs is the Hermit. You would think that Nature
had played a joke on him, for he has only half a suit of armour. His
tail part is soft. He would have a bad time in the sea, but for a dodge
he has learnt.

The baby Hermit takes the empty home of a periwinkle. As he grows he
needs a larger house, and so leaves the tight shell and pops his tail
into a bigger one, generally a whelk shell. If he meets with another
Hermit there is a battle, one trying to steal the other's shell. Our
coloured picture, page 35, shows some Hermits at war. Fighting,
house-hunting, and moving house seem to be the Hermit's favourite
pursuits. But, whatever he does, his first care is to protect that soft
tail of his. His right claw is large and strong, so he uses it to close
the door of his stolen home.

Sometimes he has a lodger who lives on the roof. This lodger, as you
will notice in our coloured picture, is the sea anemone. The Hermit and
his lodger seem to be good friends, at least they seem to like each
other's company. There is no doubt that there are good reasons for this.
We shall have more to say about this strange pair in our lesson on the
sea anemones.

[Illustration: HERMIT CRAB IN WHELK'S SHELL.]