The most remarkable circumstance in the history of these animals is the changing of their shells and the renewal of their broken claws. The former, as it is stated, take place once a year, and usually between Christmas and Easter. During the operation they retire among the cavities of rocks, and under great stones. Crabs are naturally quarrelsome amongst themselves, and frequently have serious contests, by means of those formidable weapons, their great claws. With these they lay hold of their adversary’s legs; and wherever they seize, it is not easy to make them forego their hold. The animal seized has, therefore, no other alternative but to leave part of the leg behind in token of victory.
An experiment was tried to prove the extremely tenacious disposition of the Crab. By irritating it, a fisherman made a Crab seize one of its own small claws with a large one. The animal did not distinguish that it was itself the aggressor, but exerted its strength, and soon cracked the shell of the small claw. Feeling itself wounded, it cast off the piece in the usual place, but continued to hold it with the great claw for a long time afterwards.
The Violet Land-Crabs of the Caribbee Islands are most singular in their habits; they descend in annual and regular caravans from the mountains, their natural abode, to the sea-shores, in order to deposit their spawn, after which they again return to the mountains. These Crabs form, in their procession, a body of fifty paces broad, and three miles in length. This battalion moves slowly, but with regularity and uniformity, either when they descend or ascend the hills. They abound in Jamaica, where they are accounted a great delicacy by the natives, and are common in the adjacent islands.