r 
j 
THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER. 415 
thrown much light on the natural history of our fishes and their 
food 
The following is an abstract (often in the author’s own words) 
of Mr. Smith’s paper, which appeared late during 1873, in the 
Transactions of the Con- Fig. 81. , 
necticut Academy (vol. ii) 
and in part in the appendix 
to the report of the U.S. 
Fish Commissioner, lately 
issued. The season at 
which the female lobsters 
carry eggs varies much on 
different parts of the coast. 
Mr. Smith states that lob- 
and Stonington, Conn., are 
with eggs in April and 
May, while at Halifax he 
found them with eggs, in 
which the embryos were 
just beginning to develop, early in September. We have seen 
them in Salem with the embryos ready to hatch in the middle of 
May, and are told by Mr. J. H. Emerton, that they also breed 
here in November. It is not impossible that they breed at inter- 
vals throughout the year. This is an important point. At any 
rate there should be a close time on the coast of New England, 
during April and May, and October and November. Persons 
should also be fined heavily for selling lobsters with eggs attached. 
The appearance of the embryo in the egg is represented by fig. 
81.* He divides the larval condition of the lobster into three 
Stages. The first, represented on plate 3, figs. A, B (D one of 
the cephalothoracie legs of the second pair, enlarged 20 diameters ; 
a, exopodus ; b, epipodus; c, branchial appendages), is a little 
under a third of an inch long, and was found early in July at 
SS a peer aE IRAE BRS MR Le E 
a Embryo, some time before hatching, removed from the external envelope and 
own in a side view, enlarged 20 diameters; a, a, dark green yolk mass still unab- 
Sorbed; b, lateral margin of the carapax marked with many dendritic spots of red pig- 
forms the big claw of the adult; h, outer swimming branch or exopodus of the same; 
the four ambulatory legs with their exopodal branches; &, intestine; J, heart; m, 
lobed il si Wi 
gewise. 
