Mr. Eyre in his notes states—­“The Fresh water cray-fish, of the smaller variety; native names, cu-kod-ko, or koon-go-la, is found in the alluvial flats of the river Murray, in South Australia, which are subject to a periodical flooding by the river; it burrows deep below the surface of the ground as the floods recede and are dried up, and remains dormant, until the next flooding recals it to the surface; at first it is in a thin and weakly state, but soon recovers and gets plump and fat, at which time it is most excellent eating.  Thousands are procured from a small space of ground with ease, and hundreds of natives are supported in abundance and luxury by them for many weeks together.  It sometimes happens that the flood does not recur every year, and in this case the eu-kod-ko lie dormant until the next, and a year and a half would thus be passed below the surface.  I have often seen them dug out of my garden, or in my wheat field, by the men engaged in digging ditches for irrigation.  The floods usually overflow the river flats in August or September, and recede again in February or March.  For further particulars respecting the modes of catching the eu-kod-kos, vide vol. ii. pages 252 and 267.”

“I have spoken of this cray-fish as the smaller variety as respects the Murray.  It is larger than the one found in the ponds of the river Torrens at Adelaide; but in the river Murray one is procured of a size ranging to 4 1/2 lbs., and which is quite equal in flavour to the finest lobster.”

These latter have not yet been received in any of our collections, so that we are unable to state how it differs from those now described:  they must be the giants of the genus.

1.  The Van Diemen’s Land Cray-fish.  ASTACUS FRANKLINII, t. 3. f. 1.—­Carapace convex on the sides, rather rugose on the sides behind, the front only slightly produced and edged with a toothed raised margin not reaching beyond the front edge of the lower orbit, and with a very short ridge at the middle of each orbit behind; the hands compressed, rather rugose, edge thick and toothed:  wrist with four or five conical spines on the inner side, the front the largest:  the central caudal lobe, broad, continuous, calcareous to the tip, lateral lobes, with a very slight central keel; the sides of the second abdominal rings spinose.

Inhab.  Van Diemen’s Land.

Mr. Milne Edwards, (Archives du Museum, ii. 35. t. 3.) has recently described a species of this genus from Madagascar, under the name of A. MADAGASCARIENSIS, which is nearly allied to the Van Diemen’s Land species, in the shortness of the frontal process, the spines on the sides of the second abdominal segment, and in the lobes of the tail; but it differs from it in the length of the claws, and other particulars.  Madagascar appears to be the tropical confines of the genus.