Every one is familiar with that impudent and intrusive species of
Hermit-crab,[119] which, with its foxy-brown head and legs protruding,
rolls over shells and pebbles with rattling patter, on almost every
beach. The species I speak of is quite distinct from that homely and
amusing subject. Though attaining a size fully equal, its proportions
are much slenderer and more elegant; and the colours,--a light fawn,
set off with soft tints of azure, lilac, and scarlet,--are far
more beautiful than those of its fellow; not to speak of technical
characters which abundantly distinguish the two.
The companion of the Cloaklet, which bears the name of Mr. Prideaux
of Plymouth, who first made it known, is exclusively a deep-water
species. Found on various parts of our coast, it invariably occurs in
this association. I believe the Crab in no instance lives without the
Anemone, the Anemone in no instance without the Crab. Examples, indeed,
do now and then occur, as mentioned by Forbes, in which the one comes
up in the dredge without the other; but I believe this is only when
the rude action of the dredge has frightened the Crab, and induced it
suddenly to vacate the shell and desert its friend. The Bernard is
never attended by any such companion.[120]
The history of the tenancy of univalve shells by these curious Crabs
is well known; and the comic scenes that take place in the process of
flitting from one tenement to another, larger and more commodious, have
been so fully narrated by myself and other observers, that I shall
assume the reader to be conversant with them.[121] And the rather
because the association of the Crab with the Zoophyte is a thing so
much more singular, so much more unaccountable, and so much less
generally known, that I shall seek to tell the story in some detail.
[Illustration: