82 NOTES ON THE HABITS OF CERTAIN CRAWFISH. 
little crawfish or fresh-water lobster, who did not choose to be 
incommoded by the pebble, though doubtless he attributed its 
sudden arrival to the usual accidents of the stream, and not to my 
thoughtless movements. He had thrust his broad lobster-like 
claws under the stone, and then drawn them near to his mouth, 
thus making a kind of shelf; and as he reached the edge of the 
hole, he suddenly extended his claws, and rejected the encum- 
brance from the lower side, or down stream. Delighted to have 
found a living object with whose habits I was unacquainted, I 
should have repeated my experiment, but the crawfish presently 
returned with what might be called an armful of rubbish, and 
threw it over the side of his cell, and down the stream as before. 
Having watched him for some time while thus engaged, my atten- 
tion was caught by the considerable number of similar holes along 
the margin and in the bed of the stream. One of these I explored 
with a small rod, and found it to be eight or ten inches deep, and 
widened below into a considerable chamber, in which the little 
lobster found a comfortable abode. Like all of his tribe, the 
crawfish makes considerable opposition to being removed from 
his dwelling, and bit smartly at the stick with his claws: as my 
present object was only to gain acquaintance with his dwelling, 
he was speedily permitted to return to it in peace.” 
There are some points in this pleasing description of the haunt 
of a burrowing crawfish that differ from the results of our own 
observations. It will be noticed that the principal description 
is of a “ burrow ” or hole in the bed of the stream, facing against 
the current. This is more in accordance with what we have 
noticed of the habits of Cambarus affinis, which species, however, 
appears merely to take shelter under stones; and the burrows of 
Cambarus Bartonii, so far as we have discovered them, have all 
been in the banks of the smaller streams and meadow ditches 
_(and occasionally, a colony of burrows in the river bank, where 
peculiarly favorable), a little below the usual water line. 
The crawfish that we have found inhabiting such burrows, 
located as we describe, besides showing anatomical specific differ- 
ences, will thrive admirably, we find, in an aquarium, where the 
water is, of course, quiet; while both the others die very soon 
after being taken from their natural habitats. This fact, we think, 
is of itself quite sufficient to show a decided difference between a 
burrowing and a running water species, even if no ene vari- 
ations could be traced. 
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