264 HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. 



and to mount up as along a canal, carrying in the current 

 the particles destined for its food towards the mouth. It 

 seems to be constantly, when in this position, employed in 

 swallowing and digesting its food, its masticatory organs 

 being in perpetual motion."* 



The Fairy Shrimp seems to live on dead animal or vege- 

 table matter. 



Dr. Shaw, who has given a history of it,t tells us that 

 the females deposit their eggs in March and April, without 

 any settled order, and perfectly loose in the water. They 

 appear to the naked eye like very minute globules, " scarce, 

 if at all, exceeding in size the particles of the farina in a 

 mallow ; and what makes this comparison the more just is, 

 that each ovum, when magnified, is extremely like one of 

 the globules of farina in that plant, for it is thickly beset on 

 every side with sharp spines." These, Dr. Shaw supposes, 

 may probably be intended to assist in causing them to 

 adhere to the substances on which they fall when extruded, 

 as well as defend them from the smaller water-insects. 



* Baird, Brit. Entomostraca, pp. 47, 48. 



f Linnean Transactions, vol. i. pp. 103, 110. 



