QUEER CHIMNEY BUILDERS 195 
he knows enough to make it firm and steady by 
building wider at the base. The chimneys are 
not very ornamental on close-up inspection, but 
they serve to keep out all uninvited guests.” 
“ Crawfish are tireless hunters, working from 
twilight until morning is close at hand,” Uncle 
John now informed. “ Moreover, they are so 
fashioned that they can hunt with equal ease on 
land or in the water, having both the water- 
breathing power of the fishes and the air-breath¬ 
ing apparatus of the land animals. They walk 
about alongshore or on the bottom of the stream 
with equal ease. And stranger than all, perhaps, 
they travel backward even more swiftly than they 
go forward. 
“ Any time you might succeed in surprising a 
crawfish, you could easily knock his eyes off with 
a stick, not because they are bulging with fright, 
but because they are just made that way. They 
are thrust out from the sides of his head on queer 
little sticks, and so arranged that they turn read¬ 
ily in any direction. Naturally it is next to im¬ 
possible to catch the crawfish unawares. Corner 
him and reach swiftly, but your fingers only close 
against one another; the crawfish is off at one 
side laughing at your failure. 
“ Another thing that is decidedly peculiar 
about the crawfish is that he wears his bones on 
the outside. And it is a very clever arrangement, 
