BREEDING HABITS OP THE EDIBLE CRAB. 777 



hard again. For instance, immediately after shedding it is a " Soft Crab"; as the shell becomes 

 slightly hardened it is called "Paper-shell," and just before reaching its normal hardness it is 

 termed "Buckler." 



Callinectes Jiastatus does not appear to be confined to salt and brackish water only, for it has 

 been known to ascend the Saint John's Eiver, Florida, a distance of one hundred miles, to where 

 the water is sufficiently fresh for drinking. 



According to Prof. Lewis E. Gibbes, of Charleston, South Carolina, the Blue Crab is abundant 

 in and about Charleston Harbor, and is largely taken for food. Average-sized specimens measure 

 about two and a half inches long and five to five and a half broad, including the lateral spines. 

 It occurs, feeding and swimming on the bottom and between the bottom and the surface, in the 

 deeper water of the harbor, and in the shallower waters of rivers and creeks. It is also found 

 walking on the muddy borders of creeks or rivers, and on the marshes, when the tide is out. For 

 market, these Crabs are occasionally taken by the fishermen in cast-nets while seeking fish, but the 

 customary crab-net is a sort of dip-net attached to a pole. In the deeper water, it is sometimes 

 necessary to entice the Crabs to the surface by means of bait attached to cords. Although Blue 

 Crabs occur in this region more or less throughout the entire year, they are chiefly taken for the 

 market in the spring and early summer months, as they are then in the best condition and most 

 highly esteemed for their flavor. Both hard and soft shell individuals are eaten. They seem to be 

 as common now as formerly. 



Mr. Silas Stearns, of Pensacola, Florida, writes as follows concerning the habits, etc., of 

 Callinectes in the Gulf of Mexico : 



" The Blue Crab is more abundant than the Stone Crab, and is distributed along the entire 

 Gulf coast. It is found out in the Gulf, in the bays and estuaries, and very often in fresh-water 

 rivers and lakes that have close connection with some body of salt water. It lives in the shoaler 

 waters during the summer months, from about April to E'ovember, and retires to the deeper water 

 on the approach of cold weather, to remain half dormant until the first warm day or settled mild 

 weather. Its first move in the spring is to the grass-covered shoals, where various kinds of fishes 

 and other marine animals have just deposited their eggs, uppn which it feeds greedily. All 

 through the summer it is found in such places as these, acting both as a scavenger of decomposing 

 animal matter and as one of the most dreaded enemies of small fish and their spawn. At high tide 

 the Crabs come nearer to the shore than at low tide, and at all times the young are more venture- 

 some than the old. Hiding under patches of seaweed, behind and under logs and roots of trees 

 and in the sand, the young spend the period of high tide at the very water's edge. 



" The period of spawning and shedding extends through several months, probably the entire 

 summer, for some individuals are found loaded with spawn and others in a soft st;ate during the 

 whole season. This summer (1880), while at Saint Joseph's Bay, on this coast, I found large 

 quantities of females, heavy with spawn, lying just at the edge of the surf on the sea-beach. 

 They were quite inactive, and there were no males among them. While shedding its shell, and 

 until the new shell has become sufiBciently hard to protect it, the Blue Crab remains hidden in 

 the mad or among seaweeds. This is the most active of all the Gulf species of Crabs. It swims 

 easily and rapidly at the surface at times, and its movements at the bottom are remarkably swift. 

 It is also very pugnacious, and not only fights its own kind, but also shows a bold front to its 

 enemies, including man. The average size of the Blue Crab is about six inches broad across the 

 shell. 



"Being so common that people nearly everywhere along the coast can obtain any quantity 

 for the mere trouble of capturing them, they have given rise to no defined industry excepting in 



