88 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



rivulets to the middle of the meadows ; still, there being no 

 subterraneous communication from one burrow to another, the 

 animal, at any rate, would have to crawl out of the water and 

 walk over land. Colonies of burrowing crayfish are found, we 

 are told, in the interior of lands, far away from any rivulets of 

 water, a circumstance which would lead to the supposition that 

 these at least pass their entire lives in such localities, instead 

 of spending one season in the water and another in dry lands. 

 For we learn from Mr. T. R. Peale, of Washington, that 

 chimneys of mud, in all points similar to those just described, 

 were observed by him in New Grenada, along the Rio Mag- 

 dalena, several hundred miles from the seashore, and conse- 

 quently indicating the presence of a species of crawfish which 

 we do not hesitate in pronouncing distinct from C. diogenes." 



According to Bundy ('77), a female of C. obesus, caught at 

 the mouth of a tile ditch at Mechanicsburg, Ind., on New 

 Year's day, 1876, had her abdominal appendages loaded with 

 eggs nearly ready to hatch. 



Bundy ( '82 and '83 ) gives C. obesus as one of the largest and 

 most abundant and preeminently the burrowing species of the 

 region, C. gracilis having, according to Doctor Hay, the same 

 habit. Unlike most other species, it prefers stagnant water, 

 frequenting ponds and meadow ditches, often wandering far 

 from bodies of water and burrowing in wet fields and swales. 

 One burrow was followed twelve feet without reaching the end. 



Tarr ('84) studied the habits of C. diogenes at the head of a 

 small stream on the Virginia side of the Potomac, a few miles 

 above Washington, in May, 1883. Many of his observations 

 confirm those of Girard ('52), with whose work he was not im- 

 probably unacquainted, since he makes no references at all to 

 other writers, while some are slightly different. As to the lo- 

 cality : "It was between two hills, at an elevation of 100 feet 

 above the Potomac, and about a mile from the river. Here I 

 saw many clayey mounds covering burrows scattered over the 

 ground irregularly, both upon the banks of the stream and in 

 the adjacent meadows, even so far as ten yards from the brook." 



The variation in depth of the burrows mentioned by Girard 

 ('52) seems to be explained by Tarr, who observed that at that 

 time of the year the stream was receding and the meadow was 

 beginning to dry, while not a month previous the meadow, at 



