514 AUDUBON 



drawing it up with care, when, with the aid of a hand-net, 

 he may bring it ashore with a few! But although this is 

 a good method of procuring cray-fish, it answers only for 

 those that live in running waters. The form of these is 

 delicate, their color a light olive, and their motions in the 

 water are very lively. The others are larger, of a dark, 

 greenish brown, less active in the water than on land, 

 although they are most truly amphibious. The first con- 

 ceal themselves beneath shelving rocks, stones, or water- 

 plants ; the others form a deep burrow in the damp earth, 

 depositing the materials drawn up as a man would do in 

 digging a well. The manner in which they dispose of the 

 mud you may see by glancing at the plate of the White 

 Ibis, in my third volume of illustrations, where also you 

 will find a tolerable portrait of one of these creatures. 



According to the nature of the ground, the burrows of 

 this cray-fish are more or less deep. Indeed, this also 

 depends partly on the increasing dryness of the soil, when 

 influenced by the heat of summer, as well as on the tex- 

 ture of the substratum. Thus, in some places, where the 

 cray can reach the water after working a few inches, it rests 

 contented during the day, but crawls out for food at night. 

 Should it, however, be left dry, it renews its labors ; and 

 thus while one burrow may be only five or six inches 

 deep, another may be two or three feet, and a third even 

 more. They are easily procured when thus lodged in 

 shallow holes ; but when the burrow is deep, a thread is 

 used, with a small piece of flesh fastened to it. The cray 

 eagerly seizes the bait, and is gently drawn up, and thrown 

 to a distance, when he becomes an easy prey. You have 

 read of the method used by the White Ibis in procuring 

 crays,^ and I leave you to judge whether the bird or the 



' This bird [the White Ibis], to procure the Cray-fish, walks with re- 

 markable care to the mounds of mud which the latter throws up while 

 forming its hole, and breaks up the upper part of the fabric, dropping the 

 fragments into the deep cavity that has been made by the animal. Then 



