“For the simple reason that there are different kinds of dolphins, just as on the earth there are different kinds of dogs. As you have noticed, we are of different shapes and sizes. We have different names, too. I am a globiceps, my master is a tursian, and the young master is a marsouin.”
“Who would ever think the sea is full of so many wonderful things!”
“Still you have not seen anything of what there is to see! On all sides there are new things. Look at this,” continued Globicephalous, picking up a shell and showing it to Pinocchio.
“Well, what is it? A lobster with a flower riding on its back?”
“Almost that. It is a small crustacean called the hermit crab.”
“Hermit?”
“Yes. It is called that because it shuts itself up in a shell as a hermit does in his cell. This crab’s cell is the empty shell of a mollusk. And do you know why it shuts itself up?”
“No. Please tell me.”
“Because the back part of its body has no hard covering. So the crab, to protect itself, uses the shell as a house and thus goes about safely.”