184 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVI II. 



when the glair, with many eggs, was taken away from the 

 abdomen soon after laying, new glair was formed within a few 

 minutes. When the egg is freshly laid it is covered by a soft 

 slime that may be squeezed off by rolling it under the cover 

 glass ; this material looks like the glandular products above 

 described. The abdominal basket seems full of such material 

 and the eggs sinking down through it are seen in masses on 

 right or left sides according to the position of the female. The 

 pleopods hanging down into this mass are probably pouring out 

 over their hairs more and more of the glandular secretion which 

 will finally harden. By turnmg the female must let all the eggs 

 fall against now the right and now the left pleopods and again 

 when standing, ventral side down, allow the eggs to dangle down 

 in their coatings of slime till strings would, probably, be pulled 

 out above them attaching each to some part of the pleopod. 



As there are four to five hundred eggs laid at one time, 

 in one case 631 eggs by count, it is no light problem to get 

 every one well fastened by its own stalk to the abdominal organs 

 that later serve for their protection and aeration. 



Any escape and loss of eggs during the turning action is pre- 

 vented not only by the abdominal basket of slime with its special 

 apron or surface in contact with the water but by the position 

 assumed by the female ; when upon her side the legs under the 

 thorax raise it so that gravity would tend to hold the eggs in the 

 abdominal basket ; when upon the ventral side the same is 

 generally true since the abdomen' is carried lower and the thorax 

 raised. 



After the turnmg has ceased the glair apron is still in evidence 

 and becoming more conspicuous from discoloration and accumu- 

 lation of dirt. But after some hours it becomes broken by 

 movements of the pleopods and by straightening of the abdomen 

 and is gradually removed. The claws often have masses of glair 

 upon them and perhaps they assist in removing the superfluous 

 mass. Shreds of glair remain attached to the edges of the tail- 

 fan as late as thirty-six hours after the eggs are laid. 



Can- of eggs. — Very few eggs fail to become fastened to the 

 pleopods in the above process of turning and henceforth the 

 female bears them so fastened till they hatch. When the eggs 



