830 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



is not an uncommon thing for the female, as she crawls up the beach, to be accompanied by two, 

 three, and even as many as six males, the forward one clinging to the abdomen of the female, and 

 the remainder fastened to one another in the same manner. As a rule, however, each female brings 

 with her only a single male. After the spawning has been accomplished, they retreat from the 

 beach in the same order. King Crabs are not equally abundant at all times during the spawning 

 season, bnt are most plentiful on the beaches during the spring tides, which occur about the times 

 of the new and full moon. Westerly winds suit them best for spawning, and they will not come 

 ashore in large numbers during an easterly wind. They approach with the floor! tide and leave 

 soon after the ebb. The eggs hatch in July and August, at which times the sands become literally 

 alive with the young Crabs. These soon disappear, not to return to the shore until they have 

 attained a considerable size. After the close of the spawning season the adult Crabs are not seen 

 in abundance about the shore, but probably live in slight depths of water near at hand. During 

 the winter they are often taken out in Delaware Bay by the oyster dredgers. They are very 

 much less abundant now than formerly, on account of so many having been caught from year to 

 year for use as a fertilizer. It would appear as though a few years more of indiscriminate capture 

 would.result in their being entirely exterminated from the region. The men catch them mainly 

 in their hands, as they come upon the beaches, but they are also captured in pounds and weirs. 



The King Crab is rarely used as food for man, bnt is often fed to swine and poultry, and, 

 after drying, is extensively employed as a fertilizer. It also serves as bait for eels and some 

 species of fish. This species of Crab has been introduced on the west coast of the United States, 

 the young, it is supposed, having been carried over mingled with the spat of the eastern oyster, 

 which has been largely transplanted into the shallow waters of San Francisco Bay. It has also 

 been introduced on the European coast. 



