Prawn- Shrimps ; Pink Shrimp Distribution. 243 



the Thames estuary.* A Yarmouth specimen, with a brown 

 body and milk-white tail, is figured by Patterson in the 

 Zoologist, 1898. 



The Family Palaemonidae comprises the Prawn-like Shrimps 

 and the True or Common Prawn. Their notable features are : 

 long saw-like beak, flattened or laterally compressed body 

 and humpy after-bend. 



The genus Hippolyte has two representatives of no signifi- 

 cance in our fisheries. 



(1) SOWEEBY'S SHRIMP (Hippolyte spinus), which is of a 

 buff tint, is quite a small stumpy creature with prominent 

 tail-bend. It is rather a northern form, though got sparingly 

 on the East Coa.st. We only know of it from off Harwich 

 when taken in shrimpers' nets (Lovett). 



(2) CRANCH'S SHRIMP (H. Cranchii). This diminutive 

 species has rather an English Channel distribution, but has 

 been recorded from Harwich (Lovett) and once at Yarmouth 

 (Patterson) ; length, | to J inch; colour, pale or drab above and 

 light purple below. 



The PINK SHRIMP (Pandalus annulicornis) has several 

 cognomens, being known as Red Shrimp, Soldier Shrimp, 

 Rock Shrimp, Sea Shrimp, ^Esop's Prawn, Ring-horned Prawn, 

 and, lastly, as the Shank on the Lancashire Coast. Within our 

 District, Pink Shrimp is the more common appellation. 



Concerning distribution, its southern range may be 

 regarded as the most north-easterly part of Kent, and 

 thence north among the channels, and deeps, towards the 

 Suffolk and Norfolk seaboard. The brown or sand shrimp 

 clings shorewards to the flats and estuaries, whilst the pink 

 shrimp usually keeps more outwards. Thus, from the stony 

 nature of the ground and their deep water habitat, the latter 

 derive the names of rock shrimp and sea shrimp. 



* Tame shrimps would seem an anomaly, nevertheless W. H. Congreve tells of a 

 pair kept in a bell glass aquarium, which became so tame that they would take bits of 

 beef from the fingers. One began to shed its coat, and its mate seemed to help in the 

 act of moulting (Sci. Gossip, 1886, p. 278). 



