238 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [7 :8— Nov., 1911 



piece of lace curtain over the aquarium so that they could not 

 jump out. They ate flies and sometimes a worm which I 

 caught for them. When one saw a fly he would wait till it got 

 within striking distance and then lean or jump forward with a 

 quick movement and snap it up. When a frog was frightened 

 he would either dive beneath the surface and rest on the bot- 

 tom or hide under the piece of wood. 



One day I caught a large yellow bordered water beetle in 

 Jackson Park and put him into my aquarium with my frogs. 

 A few days later I found one of the frogs badly torn to pieces 

 so I promptly removed my beetle to another dish where he 

 eats flies if I lay them on the water. When he wishes to 

 breathe he pushes the tips of his wing coverts above the sur- 

 face and so obtains air. 



About the same time that I got the tadpoles this summer 

 I caught one bullhead about six inches long and several small 

 ones about an inch and a half long. I put them all in a large 

 pan on the back porch. They ate worms, small pieces of meat, 

 flies, etc. During- the heat of the day the large one lay under 

 the cabomba and other plants which I placed in the pan, and 

 he would come out again in the evening. He must not have 

 had enough to eat because he ate all of the small ones. When 

 cold weather came I put him into the large aquarium. 



One day out at Homewood I caught a crayfish six or 

 seven inches long and put him in a pail of water where he 

 shed his skin. I did not see him shed the skin on his tail but 

 he seemed to back out of the rest of it. He shed every bit of 

 it even that on his feelers and claws, but he died soon after 

 this operation. 



Sometime later I got another crayfish about an inch long 

 at Stony Island. I keep him in my aquarium where he feeds 

 upon bits of animal matter which he can find. He shed his 

 skin three times, but each time he did it in the castle which I 

 have in my aquarium and I could not see him. Several times 

 he has climbed to the top of the castle and spreading his tail 

 volplaned down to the sand. Once he "hooked" a ride on the 

 tail of one of my gold fishes which jerked him about for some 

 time before he fell off. 



At the same time and place that I got my small crayfish 

 I got several pond snails and a couple of trumpet snails. They 

 feed upon the algae which grows upon the glass sides of the 

 aquarium and sometimes the trumpet snails bury themselves 

 in the sand. 



