The L'anse Sentinel

CURIOUS CRABS IN FLORIDA
They Have Peculiar Shells and Feed
on Birds and Insects.

Haunting the rookeries of the birds in
the southern part of the peninsula is
a large blue crab. He makes a hole in
the ground, usually under a log, and
when he hears a noise elevates his head
and protrudes his eyes with startling
effect. He is able to take care of him-
self, for his pincers are powerful and
his shell is hard. He is often as large
as a saucer.

There is a perpetual war between him
and the birds. He wanders among the
nests at night and appropriates the bits
of fish left by the nestlings, and the
young themselves, if he can find a moth-
er off her guard. But he has to be sly
or he is killed by the stroke of bayonet
bill and eaten in his turn. When the
plume hunters have driven off or de-
stroyed the parents of a rookery, these
crabs swarm out and devour the orphan
young in short order. But while the
mothers are allowed to do their duty
the crabs are ideal scavengers and de-
vour the refuse as well as the insects
that infest the bird cities. Their bright
colors, like those of the tiger, make
them less dangerous than their appe-
tites would otherwise be.

There is a little purple crab along the
coast of southern Florida which seems
to feed almost entirely upon the fruit
of the cactus. This it so much resem-
bles that you are suddenly surprised to
see one of the succulent little balls move
away from your fingers before you are
aware that it is alive. Step back and
the crab will resume its place and seem
to be as curious about you as you are
about him.

One of the most beautiful shells
found along our coast is that of a large
snail which climbs certain trees and
grows delicately fat on the young birds.
The shell is as thin as tissue paper, odd-
ly curved and almost as transparent as
the finest glass. It belongs to the fam-
ily of edible snails so prized as a del-
ieacy on the coast of France, and if
properly prepared makes a delicious
dish. It is most abundant about New
river inlet, where the slight shake of a
tree about sunset will bring a shower
of them to the ground. The breakage
of a shell seems to be of little trouble
to the snail; he repairs the damage and
moves on.—Jacksonville (Fla.) Citizen.