Pink Shrimp, Food, Size, Sex. 245 



presence more particularly, and of another allied form of tube- 

 building worm, Pectinaria belgica (" pipes " of fishers), are 

 great sources of attraction to the prawn shrimps. Their other 

 food is similar to that of the brown shrimp. Again, though 

 we cannot pitch on any special locality as breeding ground of 

 tho latter, yet we have reasons for believing that around the 

 long parallel sandbanks girding the outer arch facing Essex, 

 there the pink shrimps flock in early spring and throw off 

 their winter-hatched brood. Thereabouts the young shrimp's 

 safety and food are secured in the abundance of marine vegeta- 

 tion and proximate zoophytes (Sertularia, Plumularia, &c.), with 

 Foraminifera, minute Annelids, Mollusca and Crustacea to boot. 



Whether pink or brown is the most superabundant shrimp 

 within the Committee's District is probably conjectural. 

 According to given locality, so does one or other exhibit 

 excess in numbers. Nor can size be rigidly compared, for in 

 the case of the pink shrimp, its abrupt bend rearwards and 

 flattened sides give it a somewhat short and thin appearance. 

 The largest passing through our hands have been 2| inches to 

 2f inches eye to point of telson ; the smallest J inch to f inch. 

 Two inches are about the medium market size of those sent from 

 Leigh and South end ; but during the summer season the 

 Harwich shrimpers' average catch yield a better result. 

 Altogether, taking length, breadth and girth into consideration, 

 the pink shrimp never attains the dimensions of the burly, 

 vigorous brown one. Compare measurements of latter 

 already given. 



The females of Pandalus seem to preponderate, but in what 

 ratio to the males we are not prepared to answer. When the 

 female " pinks " begin to have a " hard head " (shrimpers' 

 parlance), i.e., the carapace bulges atop; this the men are sharp 

 enough to detect as signifying the approach of, or is a premoni- 

 tory sign of the berried stage. The physiological explanation 

 is that the rigid horny carapace, unable to contain the augmen- 

 tation of ova, the latter are gradually transferred to the 

 abdominal region, there to undergo the process of incubation. 



