496 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



likely that many of our fresliwater fishes depend largely upon crawfishes fur iu;tri- 

 ment. It would be intei'esting to investigate how far this mutual correlation 

 between fishes and crawfishes holds good in our state. The presence of a river- 

 species in our western streams, and its absent-e in any drainage systems in the cen- 

 tral parts is very remarkable. Indeed C. harloni is found in rivers, but only occa- 

 sionally, and in small numbers. ]\Iy own observations are not sufficient to give an 

 approximate idea as to these relations, since I did not pay much attention to the 

 fish-fauna, and the latter has decidedly deteriorated, at least in quantity, and the 

 fish have become rather scarce in most of our streams. Possibly the decrease in the 

 number of fishes has caused an increase in the number of crawfishes. 



4. Crawfishes as obnoxious creatures. 



For the river-species hardly a point can be mentioned which would tend to show 

 that they are obnoxious to human interests, except the fact tliat they occasion- 

 ally capture young fishes. It is different with the burrowing species, which often 

 become troublesome. In regions where chimney-builders are abundant I have 

 repeatedly heard complaints about the chimneys, and chiefly so in the case of C. 

 carolinus in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, Garrett (bounty, Maryland, and Preston 

 County, West Virginia. Here the mud-piles may hamper farming operations by 

 interfering with the harvesting machines, clogging and ruining them. At Selbys- 

 port, Maryland, I was told that conditions were so bad that the farmers tried to 

 exterminate the crawfishes by throwing unslacked lime broadcast over the fields, 

 which operation was partly successful, the crawfishes coming out of their holes by 

 hundreds in a dying condition. I was told tliat this treatment, repeated several 

 times, had considerably reduced the numbers of the red crawfish in this neighbor- 

 hood. At no other place did I hear of attempts made to kill these crawfishes, 

 although farnaers were unanimous in denouncing them as a nuisance. 



At a few places another complaint was made, namely, that the chimney-l)uilders 

 were cutting off and eating up sprouting crops. This was affirmed with reference 

 to G. carolinus at Reedsville, Preston County, West Virginia, where a farmer told 

 me that this species had cut off the largest part of a crop of buckwheat, so that 

 practically nothing was harvested. At Parson, Tucker County, West Virginia, 

 complaints were made that the same species had damaged sprouting C(irn : and at 

 New Martinsville, Wetzel County, West Virginia, I heard tliat G. diogcnes was 

 charged witli eating up all kinds of sprouting crops, corn and beans being especially 

 named. 



I do not doubt that these complaints are justified, and that the Ijurrowing species 



