• CASTING A CLAW. 8C 



are palatable to its taste and live within easy reach of its claws. Sea-urchins even are describe 

 as furnishing food for it on the Ifova Scotia coast. Flounders, sculpins, herring, menhaden, codfl 

 heads, haddock, and bluefish are commonly used as bait in the lobster-pots. An experienci 

 observer who has watched their habits under peculiarly favorable circumstances, on the coast 

 Maine, states that, in devouring clams, he has never seen them crush the shell, but as it we 

 they absorb the meat from between the valves, leaving the latter intact. He has never seen the 

 catch living fish, but could not positively affirm that they did not do so at times. 



Casting a claw. — As is well known, Lobsters have the power of dropping or "shootinj 

 one or both claws, which may be more or less completely replaced by a new growth. Mai 

 incentives are quoted for this curious procedure, the principal ones being handling, especial 

 in cold weather, entanglement of the claws, and fright. Fright, or a sudden impulse to free thei 

 ^ selves from impending danger or pain, is probably the main cause, however it may be produce 

 The break does not occur between any of the movable joints, but always at one particular poii 

 near the upper end of the second or double joint, where it is smallest and encircled by a distic 

 groove. The claw cannot be broken off at this or any other place by main force: without injury 

 the Lobster, causing it to bleed to death. 



Occasionally in mild weather, but much more frequently in cold weather, Lobsters will she 



their claws if handled by them out of water. This also frequently occurs when Lobsters becoi 



entangled by their claws in the fishermen's nets. As they are drawn above the water, they w 



, often, without a moment's warning, slide back into their native element, leaving their disjoint 



member behind. Loud noises, such as thunder, the firing of cannons, etc., are said to inci 



^ Lobsters to shoot their claws, and also the presence of very impure or fresh waters; but to wh 



, extent this happens we cannot say. When a claw becomes injured or broken, or perhaps crush 



by an antagonist of the same species, so as to render it useless or painful, it is often dispens 



with, in order that a new one may take its place. This process of dropping an old and growing 



new claw is certainly a wise provision of nature, for this appendage is much subject to injury, a: 



nothing more deplorable can be imagined than a Lobster with mutilated claws. 



The practice of shooting a claw, even under natural conditions, seems at times to be a ve 

 common one. Out of one hundred specimens, averaging about eight or nine inches long, collect 

 for natural history purposes in Karragansett Bay, in 1880, fully twenty-five per cent, had lost 

 claw each, and a few both claws. From each stump, in all these specimens, projected a short S( 

 claw, still very imperfect in structure, and measuring from one-fourth of an inch to about an in 

 in length. In some of the specimens, one or more of the hinder legs were being reproduced 

 the same way. The fishermen state that similar specimens are also sometimes common in thi 

 catch. The breaking off of a claw, according to observers, is accomplished so quietly that t 

 operation is scarcely perceptible. If a claw of a Lobster be seized by the hands while he is 

 the water, and he casts it, no unusual sensation is felt, but the claw is simply left behind, and t 

 former owner darts quickly off. Soon after the break occurs, it is covered with a crust of coai 

 lated blood, which prevents further bleeding until a skin has formed, from the center of which t 

 new claw begins to grow. How long a time is required for the new claw to attain a size prop 

 tioned to that of the Lobster, if it ever reaches that size, is not known. However, the incipie 

 ' claw remains soft and continues to grow probably until the first molt, after which its outer laj 

 of skin is supposed, to harden like that of the remainder of the Lobster. Specimens £ 

 frequently taken with hardened claws of regular shape, but of different sizes below the norn 

 one, rather indicating that at least several moltings must take place before the claw can reach 

 full size. 



