MALE AND FEMALE LOBSTERS. 789 



merely seek the protection of deeper water, wliriwn- they ean liml it. Tin- season generally l 

 lYom April to October. Off New Haven, Coiincrtiriit, Lobsters are occasionally taken in winter, 

 on the deeper oyster banks, while dredging for oysters. 



SCHOOLING. Although Lobsters do not appear to school in the same manner as some 

 lishes, still they often congregate in larger or smaller moving bodies, which travel from place 

 to place, as though in search of food. On the central and southern New England coasts, 

 especially about Martha's Vineyard and Neman's Laud, two kinds of Lobsters are recognized 

 by most fishermen "School Lobsters," and "Rock Lobsters" or "Ground holders." The latter 

 are said to remain more or less continuously in one place during the entire fishing season, while 

 the former are migratory and unceitain in their movements. These two kinds of Lobsters are 

 also stated to differ more or less from one another in appearance, especially as regards color, and 

 the Rock Lobsters are supposed to average heavier than the School Lobsters, when of the same 

 lengths. To what extent this habit of schooling takes place we have had no means of ascertain- 

 ing, but for a short period during the spring and fall migrations it is probably more common 

 than at other times. During the regular summer movements, the larger or stronger Lobsters 

 aie said to lead the schools, and the maimed or crippled ones to straggle on behind. The 

 schools are apparently made up more or less of Lobsters of uniform size, as the fishermen will 

 often catch the same sized Lobsters in their traps for a certain period, after which this size dis- 

 appears and another takes its place. These changes are said to occur suddenly, and during 

 some years quite frequently. 



The strongest proof of the schooling of Lobsters is the fact that they will suddenly appear 

 in great numbers in a region where none have been caught for several days, and as suddenly 

 disappear therefrom without apparent cause. It is possible that the habit of schooling arises 

 solely from the necessity of migrating, and that, while they ordinarily live more or less scattered 

 over good feeding bottoms, yet when their common feeding ground becomes exhausted, or the 

 temperature too severe, they are impelled to desert it in a body for some other more favorable 

 locality. 



ASSOCIATION OF MALES AND FEMALES. The male and female Lobsters generally associate 

 together in the same places, in about equal proportions ; but some curious exceptions to this rule 

 have been recorded. Capt. N. E. Atwood, of Provincetowu, Massachusetts, writing in 1866, states 

 that at that time about ninety per cent of all the Lobsters taken at Cape Cod were females, while 

 to the northward of Plymouth, on the west side of Massachusetts Bay, seventy-five per cent, of 

 all those captured were males. In and about Narragansett Bay, the fishermen claim that, during 

 July and August, about seven-eighths of the Lobsters taken are females, while during the balance 

 of the season the two sexes are about equally abundant. At Eastport, Maine, it is said that, as 

 a rule, more male Lobsters are taken than females. The above statements must be taken with 

 some grains of allowance, from the fact that the fishermen may not always be able to readily 

 distinguish between the two sexes, especially in the case of females not bearing eggs externally. 

 The rude and hasty manner in which they handle Lobstvrs would also preclude their discriminating 

 between the sexes with certainty, even though they were well acquainted with their anatomical 

 differences. Prof. 8. I. Smith examined quantities of Lobsters in the Provincetown market, 

 on two occasions, in August and September, 1872, without finding any decided differences in 

 the number of males and females. At Eastport, Maine, his examinations were made with even 

 more thoroughness, and with the same result. Professor Verrill also states that he has found 

 the males and females about equally abundant in market supplies received from New Lon- 

 don, Stouiugtoii, and Waterford, Connecticut. It is possible that, at some seasons, or under 



