134 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



A very complete description of its life history, habits etc. and a 

 full literature list are to be found in the paper of Herrick's cited 

 above. 



Cambarus bartonii (Fab.) 

 Crayfish 



Astacus bartonnii Fabricius. Ent. Syst. Sup. 1798. p.407. DeKay. 

 /. c. T844. p. 22, pi. 8, fig.25. 



Cambarus bartonii Hagen, H. A. Mus. Comp. Zool. Mem. 1870. 

 y.2, no. 1. p. 75. 



Faxon. W. Mus. Comp. Zool. Mem. 1885. v. 10. no. 4. 

 Huxley. T. H. The Crayfish. 



This is the well known crayfish and is the only species of the 

 genus so far found in Xew York city, so that it is unnecessary to 



give any description of it. 

 The genus is moreover a very 

 perplexing one. and any one 

 making a study of it should 

 consult the works of Hagen 

 and Faxon mentioned above. 



Crayfishes are found under 

 stones in the beds of small 

 brooks or in springs, where 

 they lie with their heads and 

 antennae out, waiting for a 

 small fish or a worm and 

 ready to spring back at any 

 sign of danger. In larger 

 brooks with muddy banks 

 the}- make burrows and are 

 indeed a considerable nuisance 

 in canals, as they undermine 

 the sides, sometimes causing disastrous cave ins. 



They either walk slowly along the bottoms on the tips of their 

 legs, with the large chelae held straight out in front, or propel them- 

 selves backward through the water in a series of leaps, by the bend- 

 ing of the abdomen with its fanlike fin. 



The eggs are large, and the young do not undergo any meta- 

 morphosis, being hatched in a form very similar to the adult. 



