234 Food and Migration of Brown Shrimp. 



quite an attractive aliment. Another nutrient source seems 

 to be early and passing stages of minute Crustaceans ; for 

 fragmentary portions of their hairy-clad appendages, &c., 

 denote presence of Mysidse, Amphipods, Copepods and allied 

 Entomostraca. Delicate morsels of the soft parts of shell-fish 

 are not uncommon. 



The Leigh men have long known that where brood mussels 

 and cockle-" trayle " are, thereabouts shrimps abound.* On 

 those flats (dry at low ebb), tenanted by Tellina and Scrobi- 

 cularia, shrimps thrive on their fry and such fragments of the 

 adults' flesh as plaice, dab and flounder scatter about. 

 Herdman has recorded finding Donax eaten by shrimps on the 

 Lancashire coast, even parts of young shrimps and crabs, 

 spines of minute starfish and fish-brood remains. f 



Migration. Authorities J have promulgated the idea that 

 there is a regular annual migration of the common shrimp at 

 breeding time from the sea up the estuaries and rivers, with a 

 corresponding return in due course. This seems questionable, 

 so far as our information goes, or rather we ought to receive the 

 statement with extenuating circumstances. Possibly there has 

 been a tendency to interweave part history of the pink with 

 that of the brown shrimps ? It must be acknowledged that 

 information concerning the movements of the latter on the outer 

 sea-boards of our District requires further investigation. Still, 

 there is no pronounced evidence of immense shoals of the 

 common shrimp passing along the coasts to reach the estuaries, 

 or the reverse movement. On the contrary, there is so to some 

 extent in the case of the pink and yellow shrimps. 



It is undeniable that under ordinary conditions brown 

 shrimps are found spread broadcast over a great part of the 



* See Buckland, Commiss. Rep., 1879, Append. II., Shrimps. He also notes that 

 the heads of sardines are used for shrimp bait in their hoop-barrel nets by the French 

 fishermen. 



t Lancashire Sea-Fish. Labor. Reps, for 1892-94.. 



J Yarrell says " In the breeding season the shrimps approach the estuaries and even 

 ascend the rivers." Buckland (in Rep. I.e.) refers to M. Delidon as stating that when 

 migrating they swim > fashion in mid-water and follow the sinuosities of the coast 

 wherever there is sand. 



