SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS. 169 



The Chameleon Shrimp (Mysis flexuosus) will be found in 

 summer to abound around the rocks and in the pools. It 

 partakes somewhat of the character of Hippolyte variant in 

 respect of colouring. If you take it around rocks that are 

 covered with the Laminaria it is pale brown, or darker if from 

 among Fnci> and in the pools where Ulva, Enteromorpha, and 

 Cladophora prevail, its colour will be a light or dark green. It 

 is a singular-looking shrimp on account of its long and slender 

 carapace and the cylindrical abdomen. It has six pairs of 

 feet, and not one among them all possesses a pair of pincers. 

 The external antennae are very long, and each is accompanied 

 by a long flat scale similar to that of the Prawn's. The eyes 

 are large and very prominent. The carapace is inclined to 

 have a rostrum, but it is a poor attempt, and does not extend 

 to more than a third of the eye-stalk. It is sometimes called 

 Opossum Shrimp, because it has a peculiar pouch in which 

 the eggs are retained until hatched, and where the young pass 

 their early days. 



There remain several species which should more fitly be 

 included with the Lobsters, but from their small size they may 

 pass muster with the Shrimps. They are exceedingly in- 

 teresting, even if we take but one fact into account: their 

 habit of burrowing in deep sand like mole-crickets. Right 

 back in the early days of the present century an enthusiastic 

 naturalist, Colonel Montagu, was digging for Razor-shells 

 (Soleii) in a sandbank near Kingsbridge in Devonshire, when 

 he had the good fortune to turn up some things he was neither 

 looking for nor suspecting the existence of as a matter of fact 

 they were quite unknown until Montagu unearthed them. 

 Now here is encouragement for anybody and everybody who 

 turns over weeds, pries into rock-pools and crannies, or digs 

 in the sand for Launce or Razor-shells. You may or may not 

 find what you seek, but something of interest you cannot help 

 finding, and it may be a new fact if not a new species. 



When Montagu published a description of his find in 1808 



