ment.

a cozy grotto, whose walls are green with the tender little fronds of the young sea-lettuce, the Ulva latissima, and the delicately crimped ribbon leaves of the Enteromorpha intestinalis. It did not please us much to see the pert Libinia, with her nippers like little shears, snipping off the velvet lining of the cave. Being indulgent we did not interfere, but left her to her own enjoyment. When we returned, out came Mrs. Libinia in full dress to greet us. On every spine of her uncouth carapace was a green ribbon,-all gracefully waving as she strutted in the open grounds of the establishWhat a sight to look at! And what a lesson in animal psychology! What was the mental process? Was it a device,-"a moving grove," like Macduff's, in order to deceive its prey? If so, what intelligence! Or, was it her vanity? Done just for the looks of the thing! If so, what inexplicable caprice! This fact we have seen; and an intelligent aquarist friend assures us he has seen it a number of times. The English naturalists tell the same of their Sea Spider (Maia squinado). And one of them (Harper) even makes us almost believe that when this humor is upon it, it will even dance, or at least exercise a certain rythmic movement at the sound of music. Query; has it that hardihood when it hears the refrain:

"They hang both men and women there
For the wearing o' the green!"

If so, Madame Maia, may your gayety never be your ruin. We can only introduce one more of these curious little creatures, and that must be the little Hermit Crab, the Pagurus longicarpus, so common on our shores. Though a recluse, for he lives in a vacated sea-shell all alone, yet of hermit gravity he has none. In fact he is constitutionally a funny fellow. This crab has his two hands, or claws, greatly larger than the others; and of these, the right one is much stouter than the left. The next three pairs of claws behind are tipped with simple hooks, which having a considerable leverage power, are really efficient grapnels with

which to pull himself along when he travels, carrying his house on his back; while the claws of the fifth or last pair are very diminutive, and yet have a beautiful structural relation, as they enable the animal to perform the small amount of movement needed by the body inside the shell. Behind all these limbs the body is entirely naked, hence the necessity of an empty sea-shell with which to cover it. On the extreme end of the naked body is an apparatus for taking firm hold of the little column in the upper part of the shell.

There is a queer monkey-like drollery in the looks of the Little Hermit. We had in our aquarium one of rather large size, and which occupied a shell of the required capacity. Of this specimen we were very proud. The shell on its upper part was ashen white, with a fine colony of Hydractinia, like tiny sea-daisies. And mystic beings they were;

for by that strange law of parthenogenesis, they were the great-grandparents of those huge and splendid creatures, the gorgeous Acalephs! We had also a little Hermit in a small Nassa obsoleta. And what about this young scapegrace, whom we soon almost wished obsolete? On he came, and climbed right up into this pretty parterre, and having secured himself with his grapnels on top of his neighbor's house, most deliberately, now with the right claw, and now with the left, he pulled off my weesome pets, stowing them into his ugly mug with a movement so regular, that it seemed almost rythmical, and yet so cruelly comical, that it made me most laughably mad.

But the Hermit grows, while the sea-shell which he occupies does not. Hence like many bipeds, he has his "first of May." So he goes house-hunting. This must be understood literally. He finds a shell. Will it do? First then is it really "to let." He will "inquire within." This he does, if not the most courteously, very feelingly. Satisfied on this point, the next question is, will the house suit. He turns it over, then turns it around. You see the weight of

one's house is quite an item in the reckoning to him who has to carry it on his back. One inspection more. How is it inside? Is it entirely empty, and is it of the right size? Up goes one of the long slender limbs of the second pair, and the interior is thoroughly explored. All right! Just the house he is after. His mind is now made up to move. Look at him! Quick! or you'll miss it! Out comes the body from the old house, and pop it goes into the new one! The resolution to move was taken, the surrender of the old house was made, and the occupancy of the new was effected, and all within a fraction of a second of time.

Sometimes this matter goes on less pleasantly. Two house-hunters may find the same tenement. Should both desire it then comes the tug of war. Live together they neither can, nor will. The affair is settled by a battle, in which the stronger usually proves his claim right by the Carlyleian logic and morals, viz., might. Quite often from these encounters a terrible mutilation results.

To us it is a sad sight to see the Little Hermit, when "his time has come," and he knows it; that is when Pagurus must die. However droll his career may have been, the Little Hermit is grave then. And what a strange fact it is! Who can explain. it? The poor little fellow comes out of his house to die! Yes, in order to die. To us humans home is the only right place to die in. But for Pagurus home has no attraction at this solemn time. Is it because he feels encoffined that he comes out, that "his feet may be in a wide place?" Poor fellow, with a sad look and melancholy movement, he of his own will quits the house for which he fought so well. Those antennæ, or feelers, that often stood out so provokingly, and were so often poked into everybody's business, now in a feeling manner lie prone and harmless. The eyes have lost their pertness. There lies the houseless Hermit on that mossy rock, stone dead!

The human side of these lowly creatures, as unfolded by close observation of their habits, is much better understood

in England than with us. Our naturalists seem to be chiefly occupied with the study of structure. When their habits are better understood we shall doubtless learn something which as yet are only known of foreign species. One of these we would instance in closing.

The Hermit, as its name imparts, loves solitude so far as the occupancy of its shell is concerned. There is an English species, Prideaux' Hermit, that seems to take Patrick's view of seclusion: "Its very nice to be all alone by one's self, especially if one has his sweetheart with him." So this Hermit believes in having for a companion the dressy Cloaklet Actinia; nor will he live without her. And if form and color be considered, remarkably recherche is this Sea-anemone. Her form adapts her to surround the shell mouth like a frill, while her disk is of waxy white, and the rest is elegantly varied with reddish-brown, rose-purple and scarlet. This gorgeous creature adheres around the entrance of the Hermit's shell, so that his lookout is from a mantel richer than any field of cloth-of-gold. But when the Hermit has outgrown his house, and moving-day comes, does he leave his beautiful though helpless companion? No, a better gallantry is his. He causes her to loose her long adherence to the shell's mouth, and to cleave to the underside of his thorax. In this way he carries her with him to their new home. And what then? Most tenderly he places her in position, and holds her there until a good adhesion of the base takes effect, when she with her protector, is snugly domiciled again. These facts are given in pleasant detail by Gosse, from whom we quote the following:

"Is there not here much more than what our modern physiologists are prone to call automatic movements, the results of reflex sensorial action? The more I study the lower animals, the more firmly am I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical faculties, such as consciousness, intelligence, will and choice! and that, even in those forms in which as yet no nervous centers have been detected."