ENEMIES OF THE OYSTERS. 749 



hundreds of slates in. a single day, and effectually care for them for a whole season. This last 

 contrivance would not answer well perhaps where there was a swift current, but would be a most 

 admirable arrangement in still ponds or 'clairea.' In such places the whole area might be 

 provided with posts grouped or placed in rows, so that when the attendant was at work he could 

 pass in order from one row to the other in a narrow boat, or two attendants in one boat could take 

 care of two rows, the ones on either hand, at the same time. 



Star-fishes are notorious for the havoc they are capable of making among Oysters, They 

 have the power apparently of everting their saccular stomachs and extracting the soft parts of 

 their prey from the shell. Whole beds have been seriously injured by the inroads of these 

 creatures. They do not seem to be dreaded much in the Chesapeake Bay, however, and appear 

 fo annoy the oyster- planters of Kew England most seriously. 



" The oyster-catcher, and some other birds, steal not a tiew at low tide. Barnacles, annelids, 

 and masses of hydroid growth sometimes form about the shells and intercept the nutriment of the 

 poor moUuskj until he is nearly or quite starved; this is particularly true in Southern waters. At 

 Staten Island the planters are always apprehensive of trouble from the colonization of mussels on 

 their oyster-beds. The mussels, having established themselves, grow rapidly, knit the Oysters 

 together by their tough threads, making culling very difficult, and take much of the food which 

 otherwise would help fatten the more valuable shell-flsh. In the Delaware Bay the spawn of 

 squids, in the shape of clusters of egg-cases, appropriately called 'sea-grapes,' often grows on the 

 Oysters so thickly, during the inaction of summer, that when the fall winds come, or the beds are 

 disturbed by a dredge, great quantities of Oysters rise to the surface, buoyed up by the light 

 parasitic 'grapes,' and are floated away. This is a very curious danger. Lastly, certain crabs 

 are to be feared — chiefly the GalUnectes hastatus, our common ' soft crab,' and the Cancer irroratus. 

 Probably the latter is the more hurtful of the two. I have heard more complaint on this score at 

 the western end of the Great South Bay, Long Island, than anywhere else. Mr. Edward Udall 

 told me that the crab was the greatest of all enemies to Oysters on the Oak Island beds. They eat 

 the small Oysters up to the size of a quarter-dollar, chewing them ^11 to bits. These are on the 

 the artificial beds, for they do not seem to trouble the natural growth. But tolled by broken 

 Oysters, whien the planter is working, they come in crowds to that point. Mr. Udall stated that 

 once he put down five hundred bushels of seed brought from Brookhaven, and that it was utterlj' 

 destroyed by these crabs within a week and while he was still planting. He could see the crabs, 

 and they numbered one to every fifty Oysters. It is well known that in Europe the crabs are 

 , very destructive to planted beds, and it is quite possible that many mysterious losses may be 

 charged to these rapacious and insidious robbers. By the way, Aldrovandus and other of the 

 naturalists of the Middle Ages entertained a singular notion relative to the crab and the Oyster. 

 They state that the crab, in order to obtain the animal of the Oyster, without danger to their 

 own claws, watch their opportunity when the shell is open to advance without noise and cast a 

 pebble between their shells, to prevent their closing, bnd then extract the animal in safety. 

 'What craft!' exclaims the credulous author, 'in animals that are destitute of reason and 

 voice."" 



In a specimen of the common Ostrea virginica, recently handed me for examination by my 

 friend, Mr. John Ford, the substance of the shell was thoroughly cavernated so as to render it 

 extremely brittle and readily crushed; in fact, the inner table of the shell left standing showed a 

 great number of elevations within, which indicated points where the intruding parasite had been 

 kept out by the Oyster, which had deposited new layers of calcareous matter at these places so 



' E. INGEESOLL : Report on the Oyster Industry, Tenth Census. 



