Huntsville gazette., 1884-12-13
country. Harvard College has q fair

have mentioned. What are they good,
for? Well, in Japan they are eaten
just as we eat crabs here. The great
claws are the only really valuable parts
and one crab will produce meat enough
to supply whole family. Then, again..
the shell is broken up and made into a
curious medicine taken by the natives,
and, curiously enough, they also make
medicine out of fossil crab that they
get in the back country.
Though this crab is the largest it is not
as powerful as the famous palm-tree
crab of the islands south of Japan and
in the Indian archipelago. The crab
is called the birgos and it is a relative
of the hermit crab, only it has no shell,
the plates on the abdomen being ex-
tremely hard and effectually taking the
place of the shell that is worn by others
of the kind. The birgos is not a water
crab, living entirely upon land and
going down to the sea once day, it is
said, for the purpose of moistening its
gills. They are generally found in the
near proximity Of palm trees, upon the
fruit of which they live, and their bur-
rows are generally placed at the foot
OF the trees. To give you an idea OF
the amount of cocoanuts that the
creatures eat, the Malay natives came
about twice a year and dug up their
holes to get the cocoanut husks that
the crabs took in to make their nests
of. Hundreds of pounds were thus OBJ
tanned and made into mats, beds and
many other articles of household use.
In appearance the birgos was ex-
tremely repulsive. They were about
as big as mans head, if he was a
very big man and he had very big
head; the claws were heavy, short, col
ored red, and covered with sharp points,
so that when the claws were struck to-
gether, as they were when the animals
were enraged, there was loud,
clacking sound that could be heard
quite distance. The first time l saw
one was at the Spice Islands. After
dinner one day the German Consul
asked me if | didn't want to see q
Spice Island pig. / said yes, and he
led me out back of the hotel, and there,
in wooden enclosure, were two Of the
largest crabs, eating rice out OF a
trough, actually being fattened for the
market like hogs. We afterward had
them served, and found deviled birgos
very good.
'.The most remarkable feature about
these crabs was their enormous
strength. One was placed in an ordi-
nary tin cracker box, where there was
no opportunity of taking hold; but the
next morning the box was found COM
pletely punctured with holes, actually
bitten through by the sharp biting
claws of the crab, and in another con-
fined in the same way fhe top of the
box was fairly twisted off. Having so
much muscular power, natives natu-
rally approach them with some eau
ton in attempting their capture. I
was informed that on one occasion q
party went out to place somewhat
famous for them, and, arriving at
night, went into camp with the eXpec-
tation of trying the crabs the next day
But, during the night, the party was
awakened by the most terrific screams.
and, rushing into the wood near at
hand with rushlights, they found one Of
the natives swinging partly from a
huge leaf OF cocoanut, and scream
ing as if he was being hanged. For
some moments they could not make
out what the trouble was, but fnallyI
was sure that the man was in the grasp
of an enormous birgos. The native
had attempted to climb palm tree,
but had been seized almost Immediate
ly by a crab, who happened to be cling
ing to the branch. Naturally, the crab
held on, and had almost pulled the
hair out of the mans head before he
was rescued. So in this case the crab
had turned the tables and captured one
of its would-be captors.
1.-The. intelligence shown by these
crabs is remarkable. They climb the
palms, bite off a nut and allow it to
drop, and thus break it open, and if
they find a nut on the ground they
have been known to take it to
the top of a tree and then hurl
it to the ground. Others. and
generally the largest ones, have been
observed to beat it against rock and
so break the shell. They invariably
commence to tear away the husk at the
end upon which is situated the two
holes. When. this is done with the
great claw they hammer the holes until
an opening is made and then the body
is twisted around and one of the small
hind legs that will just fit is introduced,
the, meat taken out bit by bit and
then the shell broken. The crab is cer-
tainly lowly creature, but it is re-
markably intelligent in some ways, and
also cunning. If you have ever tried
to catch wild lobster you are aware
how many wiles they have to effect their
escape and to elude their enemy. Some
years ago the question was raised in
London whether crabs remained in the
same locality year after year, and
finally it was resolved to test the ques-
ton. So about thousand crabs were
caught and marked in various ways
and taken distance of twenty miles
and put overheard, and in much less
than week hundreds of these marked
crabs were caught on their own
grounds, showing that home, sweet
home, was reality to crabs as much
as to any other animal, and undoubt-
edly all that were caught returned in
the same way" ."-Philadelphia Times.