CONCERNING SHELLFISH.

North Otago Times, 2 December 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

CONCERNING SHELLFISH.

v LOBSTERS AND GRABS,

Most of us have seen the pots or wicker cages roped together and sunk by a weight" or stone in each, the lino having a ■ surface cork or keg buoy, in-which lobsters and crabs are trapped. These-are used on. account of the peculiar form of the animals and when they are baited with a piece of meat or fish the lobsterß and crabs simply "step inside" of their own accord through sheer curiosity. Although it is easy for them to escape' they, have not Bcnsc enough to get out by the way they came in. , Tho baby lobster has no shell to speak of," and is liable to be swallowed by other fish. Hence it makes its way to the shallows and rock crevices of the shore and remains until tho shell hardens.. This is done every year, for lobsters lose their Bhclls annually and are defenceless for two or three days. In this condition they are soft and probably poisonous. -. ~—

When grown tho lobstcrhas generally eight Icgß and fangs like pincers. It is not generally known that the lobster can vary the number of bis legs, as i( it were Trousers, It can cast one oB at will, the legs growing again. In a thunderstorm a lobster, through fear, will throw off some of Its legs, and these abandoned limbs arc often seen strewing the seashore, washed up by the tide. The crayfish, or crnw-fiflli, aril the real, if small, relatives of the lobBters. The crab has also four pairs of legs, and a fifth which it converts into scientific nippers which are said to rigidly conform to the known principles of meclmniCß. It is thought from the shape of crab's feet, that it was once a land anjmal, and certain varieties live entirely on land.

The ordinary crab is usually a deep-water or deep rock pool fish, just like their uneatable cousins the

spider, hermit and red crabs, used a bait. The hermit crab is known as the "farmer" on account of its soft body, and to protect itself often finds a placo of abode In a whelkshell.

The ancestors of the specicß are no doubt the Land Crabs, the largest of which is the Blrgos or purse-crab, two or three feet long, found at the Bast Indian islands. This animal goes' to the sea daily to moisten itself, and then returns to its nest-a hole at the root of a tree, It is eaten by the natives. Each of them contains a lump ol (at which yields a quart of vaulable pure oil. These aro the crabs that are said to climb trees seeking for and eating coconuts. There are other sorts, such as the tropical grass crab, which, is transparent, and the Indian freshwater crab.

• It may interest the housewife to learn that no crab less than four and a quarter inches in length may be taken by a fisherman, an ordinance frequently evaded, and that crabs with a soft shell should be avoided, for, like lobsters, the crabs assume new shells every year. One often hears of the torture of these shell-

fish by cooking them alive. It may console the tender-hearted to know that when the crab and lobster boilers throw the fish in the water to

boll tho molluscs do not really scream or cry, The noise is caused by the escape of air from the swim-ming-bladder,-" Spare Moments."