of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



95 



found that the lost smaller pereiopods were reproduced to their full size 

 after one cast. 



Rate op Growth. 



Coste* stated that the lobster begins to reproduce in its fifth year. 

 It casts from eight to ten times in the first year, five to seven in the second, 

 three to four in the third, and from two to three in the fourth. After 

 the fifth year the changes are only annual. 



Recent researches on the rate of growth of the European lobster by 

 Appellof are summarised in a recent number of the Fish Trades Gazette.f 

 A lobster, hatched in 1900, cast on 20th June and 5th September 1902, 

 and at the latter date measured inches long. In the following year it 

 cast on 22nd June and 21st August, its length then being 4| inches; 

 it was then three years old. Another lobster, when caught in 1901, 

 measured 4f inches; it cast twice in 1902, and measured 7 inches. In 

 1903 it cast once, and was then 8g inches. Appellof concludes that the 

 lobster on the west coast of Norway takes six or seven years before it 

 reaches a length of 8| inches, that is to say, maturity. The number of 

 casts which have occurred up to that stage is 17 to 19. Meek concludes 

 that the lobster is 9-10 inches long when four to five years old. 



Herrick considered that the American lobster when 10 inches long was 

 about 4J years old. In the 32nd and 33rd Reports of Commissioners of 

 Inland Fisheries of Rhode Island certain data are given bearing on the 

 rate of growth of that lobster. A method of rearing the larva? in cloth 

 bags was found to be very successful, a whirling motion was maintained 

 in the water while the lobsters were in the zoea condition. Lobsters 

 were reared from the zoea condition and kept until over two years old. 

 The following are the average sizes at different ages : — 



3 months old . . If inches long. 



10 . . av. 2 



1 year . . . . „ 2 } „ 



2 years . . . . „ 4| „ 

 2 years -f- 4 months „ 4g „ 



The Behaviour of the Lobster. 



The main motive of a lobster's activity is defence — caution ; and, in 

 defending itself, a blind unrelenting vengeance is a fitting corollary. It 

 first procures a hole within which to lie waiting for its prey, and to which 

 it may retire after a foray. Any animal that appoaches it is a foe. No 

 animal, lobster or other, is safe to approach and make its presence known. 

 In this highly organised form, its keenness in attack, and relentless hold 

 when it once has gripped its antagonist, are due to its want of sight. The 

 want of sight, in its true sense, in the lobster and crab places a disability 

 on them, and reduces the effectiveness of animals which would otherwise 

 be powerful competitors of the smaller inhabitants of the sea. Herrick 

 says that the eye of the lobster is so sensitive to light that it 

 cannot bear strong light; strong light blinds it. One immediate 

 difficulty then which is experienced in keeping lobsters in confinement 

 is their tendency to fighting, which usually results in the loss of a 

 chela to one of the combatants. When a lobster is seized by its big 



* Vide Buckland. 

 t July 9, 1904. 



