CASTING A CLAW. 805 



are palatable to its taste and live within easy reach of its claws. Sea-urchins even are described 

 as furnishing food for it on the Nova Scotia coast. Flounders, sculpins, herring, menhaden, codfish 

 heads, haddock, and bluefish are commonly used as bait in the lobster-pots. An experienced 

 observer who has watched their habits under peculiarly favorable circumstances, on the coast of 

 Maine, states that, in devouring clams, he has never seen them crush the shell, but as it were 

 they absorb the meat from between the valves, leaving the latter intact. He has never seen them 

 catch living fish, but could not positively affirurthat they did not do so at times. 



CASTING A CLATV. As is well known, Lobsters have the power of dropping or "shooting" 

 one or both claws, which may be more or less completely replaced by a new growth. Many 

 incentives are quoted for this curious procedure, the principal ones being handling, especially 

 in cold weather, entanglement of the claws, and fright. Fright, or a sudden impulse to free them- 

 selves from impending danger or pain, is probably the main cause, however it may be produced. 

 The break does not occur between auy of the movable joints, but always at one particular point, 

 near the upper end of the second or double joint, where it is smallest and encircled by a distinct 

 groove. The claw cannot be broken off at this or any other place by main force without injury to 

 the Lobster, causing it to bleed to death. 



Occasionally in mild weather, but much more frequently in cold weather, Lobsters will shoot 

 their claws if handled by them out of water. This also frequently occurs when Lobsters become 

 entangled by their claws in the fishermen's nets. As they are drawn above the water, they will 

 often, without a moment's warning, slide back into their native element, leaving their disjointed 

 member behind. Loud noises, such as thunder, the firing of cannons, etc., are said to incite 

 Lobsters to shoot their claws, and also the presence of very impure or fresh waters; but to what 

 extent this happens we cannot say. When a claw becomes injured or broken, or perhaps crushed 

 by an antagonist of the same species, so as to render it useless or painful, it is often dispensed 

 with, in order that a new one may take its place. This process of dropping an old and growing a 

 new claw is certainly a wise provision of nature, for this a'ppeudage is much subject to injury, and 

 nothing more deplorable can be imagined than a Lobster with mutilated claws. 



The practice of shooting a claw, even under natural conditions, seems at times to be a very 

 common one.' Out of one hundred specimens, averaging about eight or nine inches long, collected 

 for natural history purposes in Narragausett Bay, in 1880, fully twenty -five per cent, had lost a 

 claw each, and a few both claws. From each stump, in all these specimens, projected a short soft 

 claw, still very imperfect in structure, and measuring from one-fourth of an inch to about an inch 

 in length. In some of the specimens, one or more of the hinder legs were being reproduced in 

 the same way. The fishermen state that similar specimens are also sometimes common in their 

 catch. The breaking off of a claw, according to observers, is accomplished so quietly that the 

 operation is scarcely perceptible. If a claw of a Lobster be seized by the hands while he is in 

 the water, and he casts it, no unusual sensation is felt, but the claw is simply left behind, and the 

 former owner darts quickly off. Soon after the break occurs, it is covered with a crust of coagu- 

 lated blood, which prevents further bleeding until a skin has formed, from the center of which the 

 new claw begins to grow. How long a time is required for the new claw to attain a size propor- 

 tioned to that of the Lobster, if it ever reaches that size, is not known. However, the incipient 

 claw remains soft and continues to grow probably until the first molt, after which its outer layer 

 of skin is supposed to harden like that of the remainder of the Lobster. Specimens are 

 frequently taken with hardened claws of regular shape, but of different sizes below the normal 

 one, rather indicating that at least several moltings must take place before the claw can reach ita 

 full size. 



