18 



Lobsters 

 changing colour. 



Habits of 

 lobsterst 



he becomes sedentary, each metamorphosis being different in shape. He will 

 become the size of a prawn in six weeks.* 



The smallest perfect lobster I ever saw was at Bognor. I have also a 

 specimen in my museum, one of which was taken from the inside of a cod. 



It measures lj inches in barrel, 1| inches in the tail, total, 2| inches ; also 

 two others taken by myself at Heme Bay, measuring respectively 4f inches 

 and 4 inches. 



As regards the care of its young, and the nidification of lobsters, it was 

 given in evidence at North Berwick, that a hen lobster, " when spawning, 

 makes a nest like a swallow, building it with mud and sand with her horns." 

 On September 28th, 1867, I obtained some evidence on this point from a lobster 

 which I had in captivity at Reculvers. The first night she was in the tank 

 she artfully collected cockle and oyster shells, and made a trench round herself; 

 a branch of seaweed was made to form a canopy over her head. This house, 

 however, might have been made for concealment. As regards the care of a 

 mother lobster for her young, a witness stated he had put a hen lobster 

 into a box, and in three or four weeks after a great many young ones were 

 born, and they clustered round the mother like chickens round a hen. A 

 lobster carrying eggs is called a "berried" or ran hen. Lobsters are found 

 with berries all the year round, but in my experience not so much in the winter 

 months as at other times of the year. A witness at Banff stated that thirty 

 per cent, of all the lobsters taken are berried all the season through. Most 

 berried hens are found in the warm months, May to July. When the young 

 have hatched out, the lobster is called a " shotten," or hollow lobster. There is as 

 much difference between a berried hen and a shotten lobster, as there is between 

 a herring full of roe and a shotten herring. Lobsters are said to eat each 

 other's spawn; you may put berried hens into a lobster store pot and the other 

 lobsters will eat out the berries. Lobsters have been put in a store pot with- 

 out berries, and found full of berries in three weeks. 



No experiments have yet been carried out as to hatching and rearing lobsters 

 by artificial means. I think it possible that if properly carried out lobster 

 breeding ponds might be made a success. 



it is apparently possible to establish a lobster fishery under favourable cir- 

 cumstances. I am informed on good authority that when they were building 

 the Lowestoft pier some years ago, a small vessel sank in the harbour laden 

 with lobsters and crabs, which, escaping, took possession of the pier, which was 

 composed of large blocks of stone, and they have continued to breed there. 

 Before this such a thing as a lobster had never been caught at Lowestoft, which 

 has a low sandy beach. 



It is curious that lobsters assume different colours during the process of 

 boiling. Norway lobsters turn a deep red, while the Scotch are more or less 

 marbled. French lobsters also boil red. Hence a lobster is sometimes called 

 " The Cardinal of the Sea " by French fishermen. Off Bangor lobsters are some- 

 times caught which are a beautiful sky blue colour ; this is simply a variety. 

 In May 1868 I received a specimen (now in my museum) of a lobster which 

 was half .Albino. One side of the barrel was blue and the other was white. 

 Spirits of wine has turned the blue colour of the lobster red. I cut off a 

 portion of the white side and boiled it, but it did not turn red. Hence I 

 conclude that the colouring matter was entirely absent from this portion of 

 the shell. The lobster therefore was half Albino. 



Lobsters are good climbers. Their favourite haunts are deep down in the 

 submarine caves and hollows in the rocks called " pills " in Cornwall. We may 

 conclude that they live in places either darkened by the depth above or by 

 the seaweed. The Creator has given to the lobster long antennae by means 

 of which it is enabled to feel its way in dark places. It is also able to feel 

 objects behind it. In the structure and use of their antennae, lobsters much 

 resemble insects ; I have tried a lobster to see how he uses the antennae. I 

 threw a portion of food down to a lobster. He immediately set to work to 





* Those who are interested in the subject of the various metamorphoses of the young lobster, 

 should observe what happens with the zoea of the common river crayfish (Astacus fluviatilis). 

 These fresh water lobsters can be kept under .observation much easier than the salt water 

 lobster. 



