226 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



sea for any length of time by swimming. Its structure certainly allows 

 it to make quick and definite movements, and it can swim freely about 

 in the sea, but this swimming never lasts long, as it cannot keep itself 

 afloat very long. Neither is it able, while swimming, to catch and 

 swallow its food ; but it seizes its prey only when it can hold on to 

 something. At the bottom of the sea it can chase its prey, if necessary, 

 with great rapidity, but while eating it remains quite still. The lobster 

 is a very greedy animal, and can swallow great quantities of food, which 

 it seems to find especially during the night by its scent, while during 

 the day it keeps quiet and digests. Its food consists chiefly of the roe 

 of fish and of dead fish, but likewise of small crustaceans and other 

 marine animals. When kept in confinement, it can live for a consider- 

 able time without food. The lobster seems to be 'able to propagate 

 when it is a little more than 6 inches long, (at least, roe is only found in 

 animals of this size;) but when the lobster reaches a length of 8 inches 

 it contains a great quantity of roe. A real act of copulation takes 

 place, the male lobster placiug its double male member into the outer 

 genital opening of the female ; aud the eggs are impregnated while they 

 are yet in the ovary. This pairing seems to take place from autumn 

 to spring or March and April, for it is highly probable that the roe is 

 emitted from the ovaries immediately after the copulation has taken 

 place, just as with other crustaceans; aud the emitted roe is found 

 entirely during winter. After impregnation, the eggs are emitted from 

 the outer genital openings of the female, which are found at the bases 

 of the third pair of feet, but do not fall into the water, as they are held in 

 a hollow which is formed by the bent tail, which, both at the end and on 

 the sides, has leaf-shaped fringes that inclose the space formed by the 

 bending of the tail. Under this tail, there is fastened a double row of 

 the so-called tail-feet, to which the eggs are strung by strong slimy 

 strings. The embryo now begins to develop in these eggs, which are 

 quite numerous, 2,000 to 3,000 in one female, according to the size, aud 

 occasionally as many as 10,000 to 12,000. The formation of the embryo 

 does not, however, seem to begin till the temperature of the water has 

 become milder in spring, even if the pairing should have taken 

 place in autumn or winter ; for, although loose roe is often found in 

 winter, it is never seen in any degree developed into an embryo. This 

 pairing and the development of the roe seem to take place at different 

 times on the differeut portions of the coast ; for the fishermen them- 

 selves, who have such an excellent opportunity of observing them, are 

 not agreed as to the actual time. The development of the embryo 

 seems to take at least fourteen days from the time of commencement, 

 aud it can easily be observed till the young break the shells of the eggs 

 and begin to lead an independent life. When the young lobster comes 

 out of the egg, it measures only a few lines in length, and does not at all 

 resemble the old lobster, but has a different structure. It does not 

 leave the hollow uuder its mother's tail immediately after being hatched, 



