INLAND FISHERIES. 67 



moulted into this stag-e were put iuto a car which had gravel and 

 stones in the bottom. AVithin ten minutes not a single specimen 

 Avas in sight. 



The suddenness and completeness of this change so conducive 

 to the safety of the lobsters gives much practical and economic 

 interest to the problems of rearing the young through the critical 

 ]ieriod. The advantage of rearing trout to the fingerling stage 

 before liberating them has been amply demonstrated, but the 

 value of protecting the lobsters through their early stages (from 

 12 to 20 days) is even greater. 



Moulting, or Shedding. —The habit of shedding the skin begins 

 when the lobsters are two or three days old and continues through- 

 out life. The intervals between successive moults grow longer 

 as the age increases. It has already been stated that the first 

 three moults occur in about twelve days, on the average, at Wick- 

 ford. There is much variation, according to different conditions. 

 Late in life the periods are longer, and the adult may not shed 

 more than once a year. In the first moults, as in the succeeding 

 ones, the process is the same, the old skin lieiug split across 

 the back, between the thorax and the abdomen, and the body 

 worked out through this opening, leaving the cast skin otherwise 

 intact. 



The actual process of moulting usually occupies only a few 

 minutes, but not infrequently something goes wrong and the 

 struggle is quite prolonged. Often the lobster dies in the process, 

 and the period of moulting is at liest a very precarious one in the 

 life of the lobster, whether in the young stages or in the later 

 ones. 



Feeding-hahits. — No animals, with the exception of typhoid con- 

 valescents, are more voracious than newly-hatched lobsters. They 

 feed normally U|)(m all sorts of miniite organisms, copepods, di- 

 atoms, etc., and will readily eat some kinds of flesh, if chopped 

 into fine ])ieces and kei)t suspended in the water where the fry 

 come in contact with it. Apparently they do not distinguish food 

 sufficiently well to go to it from any considerable distance, but take 



