Show I i I i I I I CRABS THAT LIVE IN TREES By Dy far the time most numerous and In their way wa the most interesting of the time mangroves inhabitants were the crabs There hero were untold millions of at them all 1111 small all active and keen of ot vision islon If we wo sat quietly they the would appear from everywhere peeping out like little gnomes from their perches on of the man mangroves mangroves groves groes forever playing their noiseless little fiddles These tiny tin not only played but danced Let us picture a scene constantly enacted so close to tous tous us that wo could all but touch the tho per performers performers performers formers Two crabs approach each other othel now fiddling fi vigorously now waving their diminutive pincers back hack and forth over their heads as a ballet dancer waves her arms They The move never in straight lines but sideways s now running back a few feu steps now forward for forward forward ward until at last they the meet and each grasping the others other claws raises them therm aloft and then for tor five minutes they the circle about In hm most ludicrous Imitation of a waltz All this usually took place on the lower loner surface of a mangrove trunk time the Inverted position apparently making no less secure tho the footing of 0 tho the little dancers We Wo ro could not dish cover Coer whether this performance was teas as In tho time nature of courtship or defiance or just pure puro play What we did discover concerning the tho lives lIes of these crabs was full of interest Hundreds of tho the smallest sized ones lived lIed In holes In tho the mud and when tho the tide tido went tweet out they tile came canto out and ran about intent on some somo business of their little existence An Another Another Another other class of ot larger lar er individuals had their holes holos near the roots of ot tho time man mangroves mangroves groves one or rarely two crabs apparently taking possession of each roch root Here he disported himself running up and down own from the water Into tho the air with no change In speed and here strangest of all ho he grew to tor resemble r his home root There was as great diversity among amonS the time roots as ns among amonS the tho larger trunks tm whitish black mottled and all Intervening shades It was a fact of or which we had hundreds of dally proofs that the crabs were so like their particular roots that often we could not detect the tho quiescent crustacean an when within a n afoot afoot foot of o our faces There here was teas one group of five fio black roots forming form InS a rough circle about a single mottled root As we approached a crab ran down each stalk into tho the water and as we peered down anti and saw them go Into their holes we awe could at a glance tell tho the mottled crab from the tho five black ones onos on os Even KVen tho roots which wore were as yet et a foot or o more above tho time bottom mud each had Its occupant which thus had hind to swim upward from his hole before ho could grasp rasp his swaying perch perchA A third class of at crabs lived among tho lino higher trunks and branches of the mangroves and anti except where here and there was a highroad of ot some somo large trunk dipping Into tho the water these less fortunate fortunato fellows had lad to scamper camper in frantic hasto haste up the roots of their larger brethren Tho The indignant owner would rush at tho time trespasser with up lifted pincers sometimes forcing him hint to leap for his life C W Y Deebe Beebe in fu Harpers Hampers Magazine |