l62 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



bit. He just walks up to the anemone, and keeping his body 

 clear of her tentacles by means of his spindly walking legs, 

 reaches to her mouth with his widely extended pincers the 

 larger pair. There is such a matter-of-fact, business-like air 

 about his action that you would scarcely be surprised if you 

 heard him say, " Hallo ! what have we got for dinner to-day? 

 Young goby, eh ! Thanks ; I'll take a little ! " and you see 

 the luckless goby that has been stung by the anemone quickly 

 withdrawn from her throat and taken off to the Prawn's den 

 beneath the big stone at the other end of the pool. In all 

 probability, if he has happened to arrive just too late, when 

 the anemone's meal has entirely disappeared from sight, you 

 will see him giving a sly tweak to her tentacles. 



The young ones swarm in the pools, and you have only to 

 disturb the drapery of weeds that lines the wall to see a 

 number of them come out into the middle ; but the big fellows, 

 of four inches and more in length, keep close, as a rule, in a 

 hole or under a stone. Oftentimes a huge stone that cannot 

 be lifted will be found in a pool supported upon other stones, 

 or kept away from the floor by the concavity of the bottom. 

 A thin stick introduced beneath that stone and moved from 

 side to side will cause several splendid specimens to emerge 

 from obscurity. It now remains for the disturber of their 

 peace to show his activity by catching them : by no means an 

 easy thing to do. 



I have already dealt in the previous chapter with the 

 principle of construction in the Crustacea, and the intelligent 

 reader can easily apply the description there to the case of 

 the shrimps here. As in the crabs and lobsters the eyes, 

 antennae, and various parts of the mouth are all modified 

 feet. 



I would strongly advise my readers to catch a full-grown 

 Prawn, kill it by immersion in fresh cold water, cut the body 

 through at the junction between the helmet-like carapace and 

 the first plate of the abdomen, when the entire contents of 



