282 Further Concerning Shrimps 9 Habits. 



In so far as the trawl discloses, in an ordinary haul there 

 is a mixture of shrimps of different ages. The middle moderate- 

 sized adults usually form the great majority, and the aged big 

 ones, or the growing adolescent small ones, may vary in pro- 

 portion to make up the minority. It is patent though that 

 youth and age of the brown shrimp (along with pink shrimps 

 at certain seasons) freely associate, and constitute their every- 

 day assemblages. But in early spring, late autumn or winter, 

 should cold weather or frost set in, most suddenly there is a 

 great diminution, often an entire disappearance, of the larger 

 shrimps, which are not seen again until a cessation of the 

 severe weather. 



Meantime the shrimper chiefly catches undersized ones. It 

 matters little whether fishing is pursued in the shallower, 

 up river, brackish reaches or in the more seaward, deeper, salt 

 water. Our Thames cocklers also find, chiefly large sized, 

 shrimps sunk among the sands of the Maplins and other places, 

 when at their vocation, winter time or after a spell of cold 

 weather. Hence most reasonably it is believed that the older 

 prime shrimps "bed" or "go to ground" in the mud or 

 sand* in the neighbourhood, instead of retiring to distant deeps, 

 as Buckland has statedf. 



On other occasions, with fair weather, say near the Oaze or 

 Grirdler, two boats may be fishing in proximity (say a cable's 

 length apart), one's catch will be chiefly big sized, the other 

 small sized shrimps. This points out that shrimps at certain 

 times, do grade off in lots, according to age. Everyday 

 experience shows that the gregarious shrimps, as a rule, 

 sojourn among the zoophyte clumps, sea- weeds and objects on 

 or close to the bottom. Howsoever, instances are known to us 

 of exuberant catches in stow -net in deepish water midway 

 between surface and the ground. (See below Migration.) 



* The Lancashire shrimpers also aver that during cold, stormy weather they bury 

 themselves ; the cocklers in that District raking them up ni#h a foot deep in the sand. 

 Herdman, " Fauna of Liverpool Bay," Vol. III. (1892). " Shrimp Enquiry." 



t Commissioners Sea-Fisheries Report, 1870 ; Appendix II., Shrimps. 



