810 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



seeking to reach the sea; but during their wanderiugs they fall an easy prey to large numbers of 

 crows hovering round, which take them in their claws, fly high up, and let the unfortunate 

 Lobsters drop down on the rocks, where their shells are broken, so that the crows can eat them in 

 comfort. The crows are not easily scared away, but show a remarkable degree of sense, only 

 flying away when any one approaches with fire-arms, and later they carry on their depredations 

 in the early morning, when they have less to fear." 



In addition to the above we have some interesting remarks on the natural history of the 

 European Lobster, from observations made by Prof. G. O. Sars, about 1875, and published in 

 1878, in a report on the " Salt-water Fisheries of Norway." In prefacing his remarks, Professor 

 Sars states : 



" In order to judge of this matter (the protection required for the fishery) it is absolutely 

 necessary to have as complete a knowledge as possible of the natural history of the Lobster. But 

 in this respect very little progress has been made. Although the Lobster is one of the commonest 

 nidi inc animals on the coast of Europe, and has been made the subject of special investigations 

 by many naturalists, its mode of life is still involved in darkness." 



Farther on he gives the following general accounts of its habits : 



" As to its organization and its analogy with similar crustaceans, the Lobster must doubtless 

 be on the whole considered as a stationary animal. It never undertakes long migrations like 

 some of our fish. The Lobster certainly moves about with great swiftness and ease, aided by its 

 strong tail and the swimming apparatus attached to it; but this mode of moving about is 

 evidently not the rule. The hard-shell and ponderous Lobster must always make an extra 

 exertion in moving about, and its movements cannot, therefore, be of long duration. People 

 certainly talk of the so-called ' traveling Lobsters,' which are said to come from the open sea in 

 large schools ; and some even say that they have seen such schools many miles from the coast, 

 moving about rapidly near the surface of the sea. If this is really so, I consider it as absolutely 

 certain that these schools came from no very great distance, possibly from some of the elevated 

 bottoms off the coast. The grown Lobster is, as every lobster fisher will know, in its whole mode 

 of life a genuine bottom animal, and prefers a stony or uneven bottom, overgrown with algae, 

 where it finds good hiding-places for lying in wait for its prey. During summer and part of 

 autumn, the Lobster goes on higher bottoms in the bays and inlets, and is then frequently caught 

 quite near the shore among the alga?, at a depth of less than a fathom. Toward winter it again 

 retires into the deep ; and still later in the season it has almost entirely disappeared from those 

 places where it was quite common during summer. Occasionally, however, it is, even iu the 

 middle of winter, found in deep water, and I have reason to believe that the Lobster never leaves 

 our coast entirely, but considers it as its proper home. 



" As may be judged from its powerful claws, the Lobster is a fierce beast of prey, that is 

 not satisfied with small marine animals, but occasionally attacks all kinds of small fish that are 

 unfortunate enough to come within its reach. The bait used for catching Lobsters consists 

 exclusively of fish, principally small codfish and herrings. These must, however, be tolerably 

 fresh ; as soon as they begin to get old the Lobster leaves them to his cousins, the Crabs, which 

 are less fastidious in their tastes, and they enter the baskets in great quantities. 



"The Lobster is cautious and cunning. It never pursues its prey openly, but either 

 endeavors to surprise it, in which it is greatly aided by its very highly developed sense of smell, 

 or waits patiently among the algae till some marine animal comes within reach of its claws. I 

 have several times observed with what cautiousness and evident distrust the Lobster, attracted 

 by the bait, has gone round the traps and examined them several times on all sides, before it has 



