34G MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



cornered, and cannot retreat further. It is then readily secured, but care must be 

 taken not to pull it out l)y the claws, which may be easily broken off, thus damag- 

 ing the specimen. 'Jlie creature should be always seized by the carapace. 



Sometimes this work is very difticult and tedious, and I have often been com- 

 pelled, chiefly in the case of (Aniiharas carol inus, to dig as deep as three feet before 

 succeeding in capturing the crawfish. In order to avoid unnecessar}' labor as far 

 as possible, I select burrows in which the water stands near the surface, refusing 

 those which evidently go for a long distance through dry soil, (ienerally there is 

 ample opportunity to choose between the numerous burrows of one and the same 

 colony of (■himnfv-l)uil(lers. Now and then it happens that the work is rendered 

 easier by the action of the crawfish itself. It occasionally comes to pass that, after 

 having disturbed the entrance of the hole by digging down far enough to reach the 

 water, the crawfish may be seen coming forward, apparently trying to ascertain the 

 the cause of the disturbance. This is a good chance to seize it, but one must be 

 quick, since it generally is the only chance to get it easily, although I remember 

 cases when the crawfish came out again and again, just so far as to be plainly seen, 

 but darted back at every attempt to seize it. Males ai-e more fi-ecpiently caught 

 in this way than females, and such captures are made most frequently in cloudy or 

 rainy weather. It is very rarely that thei'e is a chance to capture the crawfish at 

 the mouth of the undisturbed hole, when it is sitting at or near the top of the 

 chimney, or on the ground away from the hole. This happened only once or twice 

 in my experience. 



1 have tried to discover means of compelling the crawfish to come out of its 

 burrow, but without much success. Bisulfide of cai'bon will not avail since it floats 

 uj>on water. I tried chloroform, which sinks in water, but without success. Only 

 once had I the satisfaction of driving a s[>ecimen of Ciiinhanis laoiinvf/aloisix out of 

 its hole by using unslacked lime. In this case I had dug a hole nearly three feet 

 deep without being aljle to reach the Ijottom. I liapj)ened to have with me, espec- 

 ially for this purpose, a small tin box with unslacked lime, and dropped the con- 

 tents into the hole, where it apparently sank to the bottom, ^^'ithin three or four 

 minutes the crawfish was discovered hurriedly working its way upward in the hole, 

 and was easily taken. This method, however, can be used only in a limited way, 

 since the holes generally are not straight enough to afford a chance to drop the lime 

 to the l)ottom, and, if the lime becomes lodged somewhere above the point where 

 the crawfish is staying, it drives it away fi-om the mouth of the hole, and eventually 

 kills it before it can be reached. (As to the use of lime for destroying crawfishes, 

 see infra, VI, 4.'* 



