CRUSTACEA. 221 



neatly -turned hands^ and the fan-like tail ; every line, every 

 joint, every limb, presents some separate beauty of form and 

 motion : the whole combining in a picture, of which the 

 dead specimens, as seen and eaten, can give but a poor idea. 



Wishing to give my readers a view of this elegant crea- 

 ture, I was desiring an Aquarian to procure me a specimen, 

 that I might have him before my eyes for a few days, to 

 watch liis movements, and, if possible, to get a life-like por- 

 trait. Unfortunately, just then it was difficult to get spe- 

 cimens. " Could you not take the figure from BelFs ^Crus- 

 tacea,' and colour from Gosse's description?" suggested my 

 friend. " 'No ; BelFs figure is a woodcut, and very unfa- 

 vourable for a ghost-like transparency. Mr. Gosse''s de- 

 scription, beautiful as it is, or any other mane's description, 

 must fail to do justice to the Prawn." So, failing to get a 

 live specimen ^^for my very own," as the children say, I 

 have been fain to draw the details from a dead specimen, 

 which, by the way, is far less ghost-like than a living one, 

 and then to watch the flitting shadows in the zoological 

 tanks, to get something of their pleasing hues. 



The most striking peculiarity of a Prawn, in distinction 

 from a common Shrimp, is the elegantly -curved proboscis in 

 front of the carapace, which iS' notched like the saw, but 



