274 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



clawed Lobsters we sec on the fishmongers' stalls. 



Lobsters are naturally voracious, but 'Muring their confinement/* says Mr. 

 Latham, ^'they eat nothing;" my experience tells me they will eat if they 

 can get food; but they are generally packed close with no food, so that they 

 have no opportunity of following their inclinations. Any judge of a Lobster 

 can tell whether it has been fresh caught, or if it has been caught some time 

 and kept in a preserve. When they have been kept some time, the epicures 

 portion, commonly called the dressing, suffers both in quantity and qualit}', 

 and the creamy substance round the abdomen and claws is wanting. 



Females in spawn placed in the tanks are said to remain so; this may 

 happen from the altered condition of the temperature of the water: it cannot 

 arise from the will of the adult any more than could the hatching of the 

 eggs be interfered with by the moth or butterfly, iVn export duty is paid 

 before they leave Norway, 



When they arrive in the Thames all the dead ones are thrown overboard, 

 as it is illegal to land them. Besides Laurvig, Christiansand and Bergen have 

 a large share in the Lobster trade. 



Mr. Bell states in "British Crustacea," a curious story respecting the strong 

 afiection of the Lobster for its young. — One man told Mr. Peach that he had 

 noticed the old Lobster with her head peeping from under a rock, and the 

 young ones playing around her. She appeared to rattle her claws on the 

 approach of the fishermen, and herself and young took shelter under the rock. 

 Thus far is quite credible, but the remark this rattling no doubt ivas to give 

 the alarm; to this I cannot subscribe. Lobsters are gregarious, and have 

 their favourite rocks, and that instinct of self-preservation, which is born with 

 animals, is quite sufficient to drive the young Lobster under the rock at 

 the approach of danger without the care of the parent. The real instinct 

 of animals, even in the lower orders, is sufficiently wonderful without our 

 drawing on fiction. I know from experience that fishermen are not always 

 to be depended upon, and, whether from ignorance or something else, are 

 much given to exaggeration. 



My father tells me he once caught a Lobster in a trawl, weighing 

 twelve pounds; and two years since a Lobster was caught in this bay 

 weighing eight pounds. 



Wei/mouthy September Zrd., 1853. 



IKisnllniipntts lintttFs. 



The Tlobbij, (Falco subbuteo.) — Although mention is made of the an-ival of the Hobby as 

 early as March 7th. in "The Naturalist," my experience has Jed me to come to the conclusion 

 that the Hobby is one of our latest arrivals in this country. In a wood near whore I live 

 there has been for four years to my certain knowledge a pair of Hobbies breeding every year. 

 This year I made up my mind to obtain the old birds and eggs as specimens for my cabinet: 

 accordingly I watched close for the arrival. The second week in May I was told of one being seen; 

 on the Slst, I first saw a pair of them flying over the wood I have mentioned; in fact after 



