THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
139 
green color. Messrs. Johnson and Young consider this variety very rare, since they 
have seen but one other in which the red color was so bright and uniform in life. 
The color of this animal, as shown on plate 16, was very brilliant. There was not 
the slightest trace of any blue or green pigment about any part of it, except at some 
of the articulations, nor of any other color except a light-reddish russet or orange. 
The eyes, however, possessed the usual black pigment, and on this account were 
exceptionally prominent. The tlagella of the antennae, the tips of the walking legs, and 
posterior margins of the tail-fan were brilliant red. The color on the upper surface of 
the large claws was rather brighter red than on the lower. A good idea of the natural 
color of this lobster may be had by imagining the color of the whole animal to be of 
the orange-red tint which is normally seen on the under side of the large claws. 
The spines were not brighter red than the other parts, but were worn white at 
the tips, as is usually the case. The setae over the various parts were of the usual 
reddish-brown color. The color of the carapace may be described as light orange-red, 
covered with a reticulate or very delicately lined pattern of darker red, and mottled 
with white. The light spot which is seen midway between the roots of the second 
pair of antennae and the cervical groove was very large, as were also the whitish 
tendon-marks of the cervical groove itself. 
The sternal calcified portions of the animal were snow-white, washed faintly with 
orange-red. The seminal receptacle, which is usually bright blue, was pure white; the 
swimmerets very translucent and faintly tinged with red; under side of tail-fan a 
uniform pale reddish orange. 
This seems to be a remarkable case of a discontinuous color variation, which is 
the result of a chemical change similar, m all probability, to that which occurs after 
death, as when the animal is boiled, 
Lereboullet { 119 ) says that a red variety of the crayfish was found in certain 
streams in the Rhine valley. It was usually small, though sometimes of the average 
size. “They are all of a uniform brick-red color, without spots, and resemble cooked 
crayfishes perfectly; the legs and lower parts of the body are always very pale.” 
CREAM-COLORED LOBSTERS. 
A light cream-colored lobster, without any darker spots visible upon it, was cap- 
tured at North Waldoboro, Maine, about 1882. It was between 10 and 11 inches long. 
I saw this specimen, but not until it had been preserved in alcohol. 
Mr. J. W. Fisher, of Eastport, Maine, informed me that in the winter of 1893 a 
lobster was caught at Deer Island, Maine, which was 11 inches long and of a light 
cream-color. It appeared very white in the water. There were no visible spots or 
markings upon it. A lobster of similar appearance was taken in Boston Harbor by 
Mr. J. W. Savage, in August, 1892. The under side of the claws was light red, which 
was not intensified upon boiling. 
Perfect albino lobsters, without trace of natural pigment in the eyes, or parts of 
the exoskeleton, have never been captured. “ Albinism,” or the various stages of an 
approach toward this condition met with among Crustacea, are, according to Malard 
{ 133 ), in all probability but particular cases of adaptive coloration. It seems to me 
far more likely that such cases are primarily non-adaptive. In the lobster there lias 
been a degeneration, and in some cases a final loss of pigment. This may be the last 
of a series of changes which we see begun in the live red lobster. The latter is uo 
more or less protectively colored than the former. 
