24 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



in the winter months abundant on the rocks, but when the traps were placed on the 

 mud not a lobster was taken. 1 



The disproportion of the sexes noticed at No Man's Land is due, I believe, to the 

 fact that the females find it more advantageous to remain on a rocky bottom wbile 

 they are encumbered with their old eggs. As soon as these hatch, the female lobsters 

 press on in large numbers toward the shore, coming up into the sounds and bays and 

 on to sandy bottoms during the summer. The lobster can probably protect herself and 

 eggs better while on the rocks, but almost immediately after the hatching of the eggs 

 the molt occurs, for some time after which the female is helpless. Now the molting 

 lobster seems to prefer the sandy bottom while in this critical state, probably 

 because it can shield itself better from its enemies. On the sand the molting lob- 

 ster may hide in tangles of seaweed, or scratch a hole and partially bury itself, as it 

 often does, and remain tolerably secure, but let the soft lobster try to conceal itself 

 among the rocks, and what is the result? There are hosts of bottom-feeding fish which 

 haunt the rock-piles, none of which are probably more troublesome than the cunner, 

 which can go almost anywhere, and would soon surround the soft lobster in its retreat 

 and nibble at its legs, or snip off its eyes, which means death. The dinners, eels, and 

 other fish may attempt to pick off the eggs, but these are on the under side of the body 

 and except in extraordinary cases, where the ova are excessively numerous, the lobster 

 can fold them between the segments of its tail and thus rest tolerably secure (seep. 

 31). This theory is supported by the fact that the " school lobsters" caught on the 

 sand bottom of Vineyard Sound rarely have old eggs and very commonly possess 

 soft shells. Eocky bottoms furnish food in greater abundance, at certain seasons, 

 which explains their preference for these areas in winter. Where on the other hand, 

 as in the region about Provincetown, Cape Cod, the bottom is uniformly sandy, the 

 lobster has little or no choice of environment. 



To sum up the preceding observations, what seems to take place at the western 

 end of Vineyard Sound during the season of migration is as follows: The general 

 movement of lobsters toward the shore is here modified by the fact that lobsters with 

 old eggs find it advantageous to remain on the rocky ledges until the young are 

 hatched, while the males press on in their inward movement. After the hatching 

 period the females make their appearance in large numbers in the Sound toward the last 

 of June or first of July, and form a large part of what fishermen call " school lobsters" 

 or "buckle shells." Their appearance is probably not as sudden as it often seems. 

 Fishermen, as a rule, work only one set of traps, putting them down now here, now 

 there. In order to follow the movements of these animals systematically, it would be 

 necessary to set traps simultaneously in different places and on different bottoms, and 

 to keep them there for a considerable time. 



Some females with old eggs come into the Sound before the young are hatched, but 

 the majority do not. It must be borne in mind also that many lobsters remain in the 

 Sound and harbors the year round, and that these observations refer only to the move- 

 ments of the larger number. Toward the latter part of August the pendulum begins 



'Speaking of the lobsters captured iu February, Mr. Edwards says: "The lobsters taken this 

 month have been caught on rocky bottom in five lobster pots. I have sot five others in deep water on 

 sandy bottom, and also on the mud, but find none. I have tried in shoal water in eelgrass, but there 

 are none there. I also tried for them iu the middle of Vineyard Sound and in Buzzards Bay, but 

 found none.'' 



