CRUSTACEA. 



137 



America as well as in Europe. In color it is of a dirty, sandy hue, which 

 while not pleasing to the eye is eminently adapted for its habits. It fre- 

 quents sandy shores, advancing and retreating with the tide, now swim- 

 ming actively back and forth, and now burrowing beneath the sand with 

 only the anterior part of its body above the surface. Its colors are almost 

 exactly those of the shores on which it occurs, 

 and it needs sharp eyes to see the animals. In 

 Xew England, wmere they are very abundant, 

 they are but sparingly used as food, only appear- 

 ing on the table in the form of shrimp salad, but 

 in Europe and our Pacific coast they are exten- 

 sively taken. The shrimper walks through the 

 water, dragging behind him a net fastened to a 

 short stick. His motions startle the shrimps, and 

 they dart up from the sand only to be caught in 

 the net. In France they are* taken even more 

 extensively, and frequently a horse is used to 

 drag the net, which is much larger, and conse- 

 quently adapted to take more of the shrimps. 

 In California the business of catching shrimps is 

 almost wholly in the hands of the Chinese, who 

 boil them and then dry them for export to China. 

 According to Mr. Rathbun the amount exported 

 amounts to about one hundred thousand dollars 

 annually, while two hundred thousand pounds 

 are consumed by the Chinese in California. 



In striking contrast to the shrimps, so far as color is concerned, are 

 some of the deep-water forms. One species, which comes up in vast quan- 

 tities in the dredge on the New England coast, is of a delicate translucent 

 amber color banded and mottled with pink, while through the thin shell 

 the beautiful green liver and the golden stomach are clearly seen, the 

 whole presenting an appearance which charms the eye. Of habits, there 

 is but little to be said concerning the shrimps. They are mostly uninter- 

 esting forms, yet there are two which deserve mention. First comes the 

 genus Alpheus,oi which there are nearly a hundred species. Many of 

 these live a burrowing life, in sponges or in coral mud, and. as a conse- 

 quence, the carapax completely covers the eyes, so that these organs can 

 be of no use in distinguishing shape, but only in recognizing the varying 

 intensity of the light. In all, one of the feet is greatly larger than the 

 others, sometimes almost equalling the body in size, and the movable 

 claw of this foot is frequently provided with a stout tooth which fits 



Fig. 125. — Common shrimp (Cran- 

 gon vulgaris). 



