Ninth Report of the State Entomologist 349- 



notice, Mr. Walter L. Allerton, of New York city, wrote me as 

 follows : 



They are frequently found in wells in Westchester county and in 

 Fairfield county, Connecticut, and are generally believed to indicate 

 the purity of the water. I have a well at my residence at Mt. Vernon 

 [Westchester Co., N. Y.] in which they are quite abundant. This 

 well is about fifteen feet deep, and is supplied by a large stream flow- 

 ing through a bed of coarse gravel resting upon rock. I have also 

 known them to be pumped from a well in my father-in-law's place at 

 Berwick, Maine. I have no doubt that if there was any object to 

 induce a careful search they would be found wherever the same condi- 

 tions exist, viz., an underground stream of good size flowing through a 

 layer or bed of gravel. 



The Asellus crustacean above named as often associated with the 

 Crangonyx, is probably the one noticed in Insect Life, ii, j). 375, as 

 brought up abundantly by a pump from a well in Keokuk, Iowa, 

 and which is figured in the American Entomologist, iii, 1880, p. 36,. 

 and of which Mr. H. G. Hubbard, writing of the inhabitants of the little 

 pools of water in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, states: "Though 

 none of the pools were larger than an ordinary washbowl, I found them 

 all veritable little aquaria, well-stocked with the crustacean described by 

 Packard ( Ccecidotea stygia). Some of the pools contained twenty or 

 thirty specimens in all stages of growth." 



The presence of these crustaceans in wells need not excite the slightest 

 fear. All of their kind are eagerly sought for food, and are regarded 

 by epicures as great delicacies. In their subterraneous habitat the 

 waters are necessarily, from filtration, very pure, and when, through 

 underground currents, they are carried into wells they attest to the 

 purity of the incoming water. As inhabitants of wells, they would 

 serve as purifiers in the capacity of scavengers, feeding upon any 

 injurious matter that might be present. 



[From the Albany Evening Journal of February 14th, 1891.] 



Insectivorous Birds for Protection. 



State Entomologist J. A. Lintner made a vigorous protest before the 

 committee of the Assembly having under consideration the codification 

 of the Fish and Game Laws, against the provisions in the proposed act 

 which gave no proper protection to insectivorous birds. The law under 

 consideration repeals all former laws upon the subject. In his address 

 to the committee he urged the importance of protecting all such birds 

 as are of benefit to the agricultural interests of the State. 



Doctor Lintner said, that to the wanton destruction of our wild birds 

 was largely owing the present excessive ravages of insect pests^ 



