FIDDLER-CRAB, one of the small and active crabs of the genus Gelasimus, termed "calling crabs" by the English, who say they are waving the enormously developed front claw of the male on the right side in beckoning, while Americans imagine them to be fiddling. This great claw is brightly colored, and is thought to be used by the males not only as a weapon, but to be displayed as an attraction be fore the females, whose claws (chelipeds) are feeble and alike in their small size. These crabs throng in thousands in salt-marshes near high-water mark, where they dig burrows, some of which have a sort of hood over their en trances where the crab lies in wait for prey, such as beach-fleas, on which it pounces. These crabs have a breathing apparatus so modified that it serves the purpose of both gills and lungs, and all the species spend much time in the air, and in the case of some, as those which swarm along the shores of the Philippines, make long excursions on shore., in Roman and in law, a trust bequest, orig inally oral, or n writing by codicil effected by the request of the decedent to the heir by law or by testament to present to a named third person a portion of the estate bequeathed. Under the earlier practice the obligation of the trustee was merely moral, depending on his honor andgood faith. Later the bequest might be made in the will itself, and when cer tain words, as of wish or command, were used by the testator in the bequest the obligation be came binding on the trustee. A special officer, known as a pr>etor fideicommissarius, was in the early Roman days placed in charge of such trusts. Certain bequests could be legally made
by the fideicommissum that could not be made directly by testament, as for instance to aliens, which were in derogation of the civil law. The fideicommtssum must not be confused with the common-law trust, in which latter the interest of the cestui and the trustee coexists, while in the fidescommissum the interest of the fideicommissary does not vest until after per formance by the fiduciary. Furthermore the interest of the fideicommissary lapses with his death if he predeceases the fiduciary.
Fideicommissa later became a regular part of the law of succession, and through them a 'form of entail was evolved, which could not be accomplished by testament. Subsequently, however, it was found necessary to restrict by legislation this feature of its use, to prevent property from being tied up through an objec tionable number of generations. It is believed that the English law of entail, as well as of some other countries, at least in part, is founded on this branch of Roman law.
The fideicommission in a modified form still exists in modern legal systems, as Holland, Germany, France and Spain. In Germany a permanently entailed estate is called a fideicom miss. In Louisiana, where the civil law is in force, the fideicommissum has been abolished by the civil code of the State.