296 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



study. As has been stated, a good-sized lobster will yield 

 about 20,000 eggs, and these are hatched, being so nearly 

 ripe before they are abandoned by the mother, with great 

 rapidity it is said in forty-eight hours and grow quickly, 

 although the young lobster passes through many changes 

 before it is fit to be presented at table. During the early 

 periods of growth it casts its shell frequently. This won- 

 derful provision for an increase of size in the lobster has 

 been minutely studied during its period of moulting. Mr. 

 Jonathan Couch says the additional size which is gained 

 at each period of exuviation is perfectly surprising, and it 

 is wonderful to see the complete covering of the animal 

 cast off like a suit of old clothes, while it hides, naked and 

 soft, in a convenient hole, awaiting the growth of its new 

 crust. In fact, it is difficult to believe that the great soft 

 animal ever inhabited the cast-off habitation which is lying 

 beside it, because the lobster looks, and really is, so much 

 larger. The lobster, crab, etc., change their shells about 

 every six weeks during the first year of their age, every 

 two months during the second year, and then the changing 

 of the shell becomes less frequent, being reduced to four 

 times a year. It is supposed that this animal becomes 

 reproductive at the age of five years. 



********* 



When the female Crustacea retire in order to undergo 

 their exuviation they are watched, or rather guarded, by 

 the males ; and if one male be taken away, in a short time 

 another will be found to have taken his place. I do not 

 think there is any particular season for moulting; the 

 period differs in different places, according to the tempera- 

 ture of the water and other circumstances, so that we 

 might have shell-fish (and white-fish too) all the year round 

 were a little attention paid to the different seasons of exuvia- 

 tion and egg-laying. 



