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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



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LOBSTER, 38 INCHES LONG, WEIGHING 21 POUNDS 

 Taken at Scotland Lightship, off the entrance to New York Harbor, 1913 



GIANT LOBSTER 



ANOTHER giant lobster, the fourth in 

 the history of the Aquarium, was re- 

 ceived September 13th. It was taken 

 near Scotland Lightship off the entrance to 

 New York harbor and came up entangled in 

 a lobster pot line, being too large to enter the 

 pot. 



This specimen was a male, thirty-eight 

 inches long and weighed twenty-one pounds. 

 In the accompanying photograph the claws 

 have been spread apart sufficiently to make 

 its length no greater than the yardstick 

 beside it. 



Like the other extra large specimens re- 

 ceived at various times, it had been kept out 

 of water too long for its health, and did not 

 live more than a few days when placed in an 

 exhibition tank. 



The largest known specimen of the Ameri- 

 can lobster so far recorded, was a thirty-four 

 pounder, nearly twenty-four inches long. It 

 is now in the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York. It was taken off 

 Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 1897 and 

 was first exhibited in the New York Aquarium. 



For an account of other large lobsters 

 exhibited at the Aquarium from time to 

 time, see this Bulletin for April, 1908. Also 

 "Natural History of the Lobster," Herrick, 

 Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1909. 



The specimen received September 13th, 

 1913, thirty-eight inches long, exceeds in 

 length the above, or in fact any known speci- 

 men. Following are its dimensions in detail. 

 Crushing claw, length \%}4 inches; girth, of 

 same, 16^inches; length of carapace, 9^inch- 

 es, total length 38 inches, weight 21 pounds. 



THE SCARCITY OF LITERATURE ON 

 THE HABITS OF FISHES 



THE habits of fishes have not been studied 

 as thoroughly as have the habits of 

 birds, mammals and other vertebrated 

 animals. Books on fishes appear to be 

 largely of two classes; those written by 

 anglers, relating chiefly to methods employed 

 in the capture of the fish and those written 

 by the systematic naturalist, dealing chiefly 

 with matters of classificiation and distribu- 

 tion. In neither class of books are the 

 habits of fishes usuallv considered in more 



