84 THE BLUE CRAB PIERS. 



been taken in fresh water contiguous to the coast. During 

 the summer it is found in relatively shallow water; but retires 

 in winter to greater depths. Adults are more often obtained 

 in deep water; but the young, as well as some adults, come 

 inshore to water only a few inches in depth. 



Economics. — Next to the Lobster, this crab is the most im- 

 portant food crustacean of the United States, it being extensive- 

 ly eaten both in the hard- and soft-shelled stage, and is highly 

 esteemed.* Any extension of its range is therefore of consid- 

 erable general interest. 



Occurrence on the Nova Scotian coast. — In the Provincial 

 Museum of Nova Scotia, Halifax, when I took charge of it in 

 1899, was an old dried specimen of an adult female Callinectes 

 sapidus, but without any data. As there were a few foreign 

 crustaceans in the collection, I did not then consider its presence 

 of any significance. 



On 8th November, 1902, I purchased from a Miss Iceton, 

 in the Halifax market, two specimens of the species, a male and 

 an immature female, which had been found alive, cast up 

 with kelp on the sand beach at Cow Bay, Halifax County, N. S., 

 on 7th November, and which had been boiled and so turned red. 

 A third one, an adult male, had been taken with the others, 

 and was obtained for the Museum on the following market 

 day. I requested the woman to look for more, and accordingly 

 other specimens from the same place were obtained from her 

 in November and December of that year, and in April and May, 

 1903; making in all fourteen specimens. One of them was 

 alive when I received it, and the others quite fresh. 



Two more specimens, a male and an immature female, were 

 taken on 8th May, 1903, in what is known as the Lily Pond, a 

 brackish lagoon, immediately behind the Cow Bay sand-and- 

 gravel beach. This lagoon is now connected with the sea at 

 high-tide by a narrow channel at the southwestern end of the 

 beach. Up to about 1901 the water of this pond was fresh, 

 being fed by a couple of brooks, and white waterlilies flourished 

 there; but about that year a new outlet was broken through 

 and since then the water has been brackish. The pond is 



* "Soft-ghelled" crabs are those met with two or three days after moulting, before the 

 shell has become hard. The period between moults is from I 5 to 25 days, according to whether 

 the individual is young or approaching maturity. The usual period of life is about three 

 years, and the number of cggn laid about 1.730,000. 



