THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
121 
The cod has an equally bad reputation among English fishermen. Frank Buck- 
land says (38, pp. 14, 15) : 
Among the animate enemies the principal enemy [of the lobsters] I believe are cod. A witness at 
Bnrghead stated that codfish are great enemies to lobsters ; he hardly ever opens a cod without finding 
young lobsters in the stomach, particularly in February and March. He has seen cod throwing up 
lobsters on the deck of a vessel, as many as five or six lobsters in one cod. These lobsters would be 
3 or 4 inches in length or even smaller. Cod eat lobsters all the season. In the spring and in January, 
February, and March there are many cod about. Skates and congers, and codling and haddock also 
eat crabs and lobsters. 
On July 16, 1894, Dr. J. I. Peck showed me the “tail ” of a soft lobster which he 
had taken from the stomach of the weakfish or squeteague ( Cynoscion regale). The 
lobster had been out of its shell but a few hours when it was snapped up by this fish. 
Yerrill (196) records the finding of lobsters in the following fish: Dusky shark 
( Eulamia obscura ), Woods Hole, in July and August ; dogfish ( Mustelus canis ), Woods 
Hole, in August; sand shark (Eugomphodus littoralis ), Woods Hole, July and August; 
peaked-nose skate (Raia Icevis), Menemsha, July; long-tailed stingray ( Myliobatis fre- 
minvillei ), Vineyard Sound, July; rabbit-fish (Ghilomycterus geometricus), Woods Hole, 
July; striped bass (Roccus lineat us), Woods Hole, August, 1871; tauto g (Tautoga onitis), 
“two caught July 8 and 15 contained small lobsters.” 
Mr. Mosher, who had prepared striped bass for market for upward of thirty 
years, said: 
Striped bass do not feed upon live menhaden, but upon crabs and lobsters. * * * I have 
always observed that bass fishing was best where lobsters and crabs were most plentiful. (Bull. 
U. S. F. C., vol. 11, p. 410.) 
Small lobsters are probably to some extent the prey of sea-roving birds, such as 
the gulls and terns, but in regard to this nothing is known. According to Boeck 
(.20, pp. 227-228), the Norwegian lobster is sometimes attacked by crows. His account 
is as follows : 
An interesting scene may be witnessed near Bukkenb, north of Stavanger, where an Englishman 
has constructed a large pond between some small islands for keeping live lobsters. Whenever the 
pond becomes too full of lobsters, so that they do not find sufficient food, they leave the water and 
crawl about, seeking to reach the sea, but during their wanderings they fall an easy prey to large 
numbers of crows hovering round, which take them in their claws, fly high up, and let tho unfor- 
tunate lobster drop down on the rocks, where their shells are broken, so that the crows can eat them 
in comfort. The crows are not easily scared away, but show a remarkable degree of sense, only 
flying away when anyone approaches with firearms, and later they carry on their depredations in the 
early morning, when they have less to fear. 
That lobsters ever leave the water and attempt to crawl upon the land can not be 
credited, and it is likely that this story passed through several hands before reaching 
its present form. Herbst (88) says that the lobsters have a great enemy in the Stein 
beisser. 1 
If the lobster is thus attacked and destroyed in large numbers by fish after it 
has acquired the habits of the adult and has many devices to avoid its enemies, what 
shall we say of the destruction which is wrought on the young during the first eight 
or ten weeks of their life? From the time of hatching up to the sixth stage the 
young lobster swims at the surface and becomes an easy prey to all surface-feeding 
1 It is uncertain whaT fish is here meant. The name is applied to the fresh- water genera Cobitis 
and Lota. 
