13(j ZOOLOGY 



becomes mature and liefore whicii, therefore, it cannot be 

 caught without clanger of extermination. The legislation on 

 the matter has accordingly been very varied. In Connecticut 

 the law makes the limit sLx inches, while in Massachusetts 

 and New York it is placed at ten and one half inches. Her- 

 rick has carefully investigated the relation of length to maturity, 

 and concludes that, on the Massachusetts coast at least, the 

 lobster becomes mature between the limits of eight and twch'e 

 inches, and hence that all present legislative protection is 

 insufficient. The rarity of large lol)sters in oui' markets 

 testifies to the correctness of this conclusion. 



Enemies of the Lobster. — Besides its worst eneni}', man, 

 both the adult (particularly the egg-bearing female, called by 

 fishermen the " berry lobster " or " Ijerry hen ") and young 

 lobsters are attacked by many kinds of fish. Two or three 

 internal parasites are known to infest the lobster, while some- 

 times it is greatly hampered in its movements by the number 

 of messmates it carries about attached to its sheU. Barnacles, 

 mussels, tube-forming worms, and various sea weeds are all 

 found at times attached to the shell of the lobster. Upon 

 molting, however, the animal is enalJed to rid itself of all 

 these hangers-on ; but this process is attended ^\i\\\ great 

 dangers to the lobster, since the animal is, during molting, so 

 soft bodied as to be able to offer little resistance to its enemies. 



The molting process in the loljster and crayfish is 

 accomplished in the following maimer : previous to the 

 thro^Aang off of the old skin a new soft one is formed in- 

 side, the lime is absorbed from the old shell in a dorsal 

 line along the carapace, reaching from the rostrum to 

 its posterior margin. Absorption also takes place at the 

 joints of the limbs. Such absorptions give a greater flexi- 



