NATURAL HISTORY OP AMERICAN LOBSTER. l8l 



covered lo miles in less than 8 days. Out of 385 lobsters tagged and set free in 1903, 

 30 were later reported, most of them having taken a southerly or southwesterly course 

 down the Narraganset Bay. Eight which had been free from 9 to 31 days had 

 traveled only a mile when captured, June 11 to July 3; 6 had wandered from 10 to 

 12 miles in the course of 22 to 58 days, having been liberated June 24 to July 26. 

 Further systematic experiments in this interesting subject have been carried on at the 

 Wickford station, and are recorded by Barnes {13 and j6, a). One of the fastest trav- 

 elers made 4 miles in a single day. 



Movements off Cape Cod and at Woods Hole. — If there were any considerable coast- 

 wise migration, it is evident that regions once depleted could be restored under favoring 

 conditions by accessions from neighboring parts. Apparently this does not occur, and, 

 as Rathbun has observed, we may regard each geographical section of the coast as 

 inhabited by a more or less distinct colony, which tends to hold its ground fairly con- 

 stantly, so that if its numbers be once seriously depleted, recovery under nature must 

 needs be a slow process at best. The history of the Provincetown region on Cape 

 Cod, already referred to, seems to support this idea. 



The region about Woods Hole, Mass., including the western end of Vineyard Sound, 

 No Man's Land, and the Elizabeth Islands, was studied for a period of 5 years, from 

 1890 to 1894, with reference to the general natural history of the lobster, and the follow- 

 ing conclusions were then reached regarding its migratory habits: The general move- 

 ment of lobsters toward the shore in the spring is modified by reason of females with 

 old eggs finding it advantageous to remain on rocky ledges until their young are hatched, 

 while the males press onward to shallower water. After hatching is over, the females 

 make their appearance in large numbers in the sound toward the last of June or ist 

 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, setting them 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 record the 

 catch 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 also be borne in mind 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 to 

 swing the other way, and the lobsters move into deeper water or to a rocky bottom. 

 This ovtbound movement is continued during the months of September and October, 

 but, as already remarked, it is by no means general and may be more pronounced in 

 cold than in mild seasons. 



Aside from their in and off shore movements, the lobsters must be regarded as 

 essentially sedentary or stationary animals. Yet their occasional sudden appearance 

 in great numbers, and often at points where a previous scarcity had been noted, creeping 

 toward the shores in veritable swarms of thousands of individuals, as already reported 

 by Sars (244);»Appell6f (jo^), and myself (149, p. 21), indicate that at certain times and 



