THE AMEEICAN LOBSTEE. 78 



summer they move into shallower water, and are taken by means of dip-nets. The best bait f( 

 the traps is fresh fish, but any flesh will answer for this purpose. The spawning season for tl 

 Spiny Lobster is the early spring, when they are found in abundance close to the shore. At th 

 time they are less fat than at others, and are not considered as good eating; some even regar 

 them as unwholesome at the spawning time,ebut nevertheless they are eaten more or les 

 continuously through the entire year. When abundant near the shore, catches aggregating fi^ 

 hundred pounds have been made by a single person in the short space of two hours. They ai 

 not as abundant now as formerly in the places where they are most extensively taken as fooc 

 this having resulted from overfishing, especially during the spawning season. There is, therefor( 

 great danger of the species becoming exterminated, unless some stringent laws are framed t 

 protect them. 



224. THE AMERICAN LOBSTEE— HOUABUS AMEEICANUS, Milne-Edwards. 



iNTEODtroTiON — Although the Lobster is one of the most important of our food invert( 

 brates, careful observations regarding its natural history, and especially its breeding habits 

 rate of growth, etc., have been strangely neglected. This fact is greatly to be deplorec 

 considering that the Lobster has recently become the subject of important legislation by th 

 several States which it inhabits, and that its cultivation by artificial means has been frequenti 

 attempted. It is now an undisputed fact that the abundance, as well as the average size, c 

 Lobsters has greatly decreased in our shallow-water areas during the past twenty to thirty years 

 thereby forcing the lobster fishermen ,to resort to deeper water, and increasing the hardships c 

 their profession. The question has, therefore, very naturally arisen as to whether this continuei 

 decrease can in any way be checked either by the enactment of proper protective laws, or by mean 

 of artificial propagation. Laws for the protection of the Lobster have been passed by allth 

 States interested in this fishery, but their want of uniformity and the difficulty of enforcing ther 

 have diminished the benefits which it was hoped might result. The success attending the artificia 

 breeding of several of our food-flshes has inspired the hope that similar methods might succeei 

 with regard to the Lobster, and many persons are now awaiting with interest the results o 

 experiments in that direction. It is very certain, however, that the breeding of Lobsters cai 

 never be successfully carried on until we have become acquainted with at least the main feature 

 of their natural history. The artificial cultivation of animals can only progress through th 

 fulfillment of natural laws, which must be thoroughly understood before they can be proper! 

 applied. As it is, however, the would-be experimenter in the matter of lobster-breeding mug 

 still follow a very uncertain pathway, meeting with numerous failures which previous studie 

 might have averted. 



To assist in a small way toward overcoming this difficulty, and as a preliminary to th 

 industrial report which will app"ear hereafter, the author has brought together the following fe^ 

 disconnected popular notes, taken in part from published works, but mainly derived from th 

 observations of intelligent lobster fishermen and dealers, who have always cheerfully responds 

 when called upon for information. It is hoped that the meagerness of these notes will act as ai 

 incentive to observers in this line of research. 



Eelations and steuctube op the Lobster. — The Lobster belongs to the highest grou; 

 of the Crustacea, the so-called Decapoda, or ten-footed crustaceans, which group is again dividei 

 into the Brachyura, or short-tailed Decapods (true Grabs), the Anomoura (Hermit Crabs, etc.), an( 

 the Macroura, or long-tailed Decapods (Lobsters and Shrimps). The members of the first grou] 



