798 NATURAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Number op eggs. — The Lobster, like many other crustaceans, carries a very large amount 

 of spawn on the exterior of the body at each spawning time. The number varies with the age 

 and size of the Lobster, but to what extent is not known. Mr. S. M. Johnson, of Boston, states 

 that two and a half pound Lobsters bear externally, on an average, about twenty thousand eggs 

 at a time, according to several careful computations, made by comparing the weight of a certain 

 number of eggs with the weight of the entire mass of spawn attached to the swimmerets. 



Two females which I examined at Bastport, Maine, in the summer of 1882, gave the following 

 results as regards the number of eggs carried on the swimmerets. The first specimen, measuring 

 13f inches in length, had 875 grains of eggs, there being 20 eggs to a grain, making a total of 

 17,600 eggs. The second specimen measured 13 inches long and carried 480 grains of eggs, with 

 25 eggs to a grain, making a sum total of about 12,000 eggs. Neither of the above specimens, 

 however, appeared to have their full quota of eggs, as many of the bunches seemed to have been 

 more or less brushed away, probably by rough handling. In the last specimen, especially, had all 

 the bunches been of equal and full size, the number would have been increased fuUy one-half. 



According to Mr. Prank Buckland, "the [English] Berried Lobster carries five bunches of 

 eggs on each side underneath the tail, making ten bunches in all. I have counted the eggs in 

 one bunch and find that there are 2,496, making the number of eggs in this one lobster 24,960. 

 Lobsters are found with berries all the year round; March, April, May are the months when they 

 are fullest." 



Designations of spawn. — Lobster spawn is variously designated, on different parts of the 

 coast, as "spawn," "roe," "eggs," "berry," "seed," "pea," "sweetbread," "coral," etc.; but in most 

 places it is known simply as "spawn," "eggs," or "berry." On the Nova Scotia coast the term 

 " coral " is sometimes used to designate the nearly mature spawn while still within the body of the 

 Lobster, and after it has passed to the outside it is called " eggs." In the Bay of Fundy the terms 

 " coral, " roe," and " sweetbread " refer to the spawn before extrusion from the body, and they 

 may also be used in a similar way on other parts of the coast. In some portions of Long Island 

 Sound, Lobsters with external spawn are called " Black-egg Lobsters." 



The spawn as food. — Before the spawn has passed from the body to the external appendages 

 it is very much esteemed as food, and is generally eaten whenever it can be obtained ; it is also 

 canned. The external spawn, however, although sometimes used to garnish fish dishes and 

 salads, is not usually regarded as edible. 



Extrusion of the eggs, etc. — The spawning of the Lobster is accomplished in about the 

 same manner as with the Oray-flsh, regarding which many more carefully recorded observations 

 are extant. According to Huxley, the fecundating material of the Oray-flsh, which is extruded 

 from a small aperture on the basal joint of the hindermost pair of legs, is a "thickish fluid, 

 which sets into a white solid after extrusion." This substance is deposited by the male on the 

 thorax of the female, between the bases of the hindermost pair of thoracic limbs. The apertures 

 for the outward passage of the eggs are situated on the bases of the second pair of legs, back of 

 the large claws. The eggs, " asthey leave the apertures of the oviducts, are coated with a viscid 

 matter, which is readily drawn out into a short thread. The end of the thread attaches itself to 

 one of the long hairs with which the swimmerets are fringed, and as the viscid matter rapidly 

 hardens, the egg thus becomes attached to the limb by a stalk. The operation is repeated until 

 sometimes a couple of hundred eggs are thus glued on to the swimmerets. Partaking in the move- 

 ments of the swimmerets, they are washed backward and forward in the water, and thus aerated 

 and kept free of impurities." 



The process of development is slow, and the young, when first hatched, bear a general 



