Mr. W. Thompson on the Crustacea of Ireland. 107 



where they are said to have been introduced. They were obtained 

 in drains connected with the river near Doagh, and were not sought 

 for as a marketable commodity, but served up at the table of the 

 Antrim Hunt, to gratify the special palate of one of the knightly 

 members of that body. About Florence Court, county Fermanagh, 

 the cray-fish is abundant, but to this locality also, Lord Enniskillen 

 tells me that the species is said to have been introduced many years 

 ago from Queens-county : — of the correctness of this, as in former 

 cases, there is no proof. About two years ago, however, I had 

 'ocular demonstration' of the introduction of the cray-fish into a 

 pond at Lismoyne, the seat of a relative near Belfast. Early in 

 September 1840, supplies taken in a small river in the county of 

 Kildare were from time to time forwarded by the coach from Dub- 

 lin to Belfast, and arrived in tolerable condition on the second day 

 after capture ; sometimes all were alive and apparently in good 

 health ; at others, perhaps one-fourth would be sickly or dead. At 

 this period none contained ova, but a supply sent forward in the 

 middle of November had them well-developed. It may be worth 

 mentioning that these cray-fish were captured by a man wading up 

 to his middle in the river, and thrusting his hands into their burrows 

 in the banks — the water must be low at the time to render the 

 holes visible. When caught they are generally put in a bag contain- 

 ing a little hay, and by being kept cool will live a few days out of 

 the water. They are likewise taken in numbers by baiting with 

 chickens' entrails a common creel or basket, which is let down by 

 a rope to the bottom of the river in the evening, and next morning 

 is pulled up so quickly, that the contained cray-fish having no time 

 for escape are all captured. 



Templeton says of the Ast . fluviatilis that it "inhabits several of 

 our lakes and rivers ; near Antrim, in the Six-mile water ; in great 

 abundance in a lake near Tullahan, county Monaghan." About Bal- 

 libay and Glaslough in this county it is now said to be met with. 

 About Kill lake, lough Sheehan, &c. in the neighbouring county of 

 Cavan it is found*. Mr. R. Ball states that the cray-fish is taken in 

 the Royal Canal, about twelve miles from Dublin. 



Mr. Patrick Doran, a well-known and intelligent collector of ob- 

 jects of natural history, gives me the following account of cray- 

 fish as observed by him in Killymoon river, near Cookstown, county 

 Tyrone, when the water was very low. They ascend from the 



* In Mr. Hyndman's cabinet there is a specimen of a cray-fish consider- 

 ably smaller and more delicately proportioned than the A. "fluviatilis, and 

 apparently a different species. It is believed by him to be Irish, but of this 

 he is not certain. A very intelligent lady who saw the specimens above 

 alluded to from Kildare — and which were the ordinary A. fluviatilis — re- 

 marked on their being much larger than those she had been accustomed to 

 see in county Cavan. On Mr. Hyndman's Astacus being shown, it was 

 stated that of the quantities which she had seen served up at table, none 

 were ever larger. They were taken in one of the tributaries to lough Shee- 

 han, about \\ mile above the lake, and eight miles from the town of Cavan. 

 I have as yet been unable to obtain cray-fish from this locality. Silence 

 would perhaps have been more judicious, than the introduction of matter of 

 this kind without any positive evidence. 



