16 



PRAWNS. 



(1) School Prawn, Penceus madeayi Hasweii. 



This is the commonest of our edible prawns, and is the one 

 usually sold by hawkers throughout the coastal districts 

 generally especially Sydney and Newcastle. It occurs in 

 tremendous abundance on muddy bottoms in water of from 

 3 or 4 fathoms up to tide limits. It is semi-transparent 

 when alive, and is covered with small reddish spots. It 

 does not attain anything like the size of the two following 

 species. 



(2) King Prawn, Penceus canaliculatus Olivier. 



This handsome species is, from an edible point of view, 

 our finest prawn; as it attains commonly a very large size 

 (as much as 8 or 9 inches in length), hence its vernacular 

 name. When alive, it possesses the most lovely tints, more 

 especially upon the swimmerets and tail. It is caught in 

 some abundance upon fairly deep muddy bottoms (by means 

 of a sunken net), though it often comes to the surface at 

 night and skips about. Though it lives in very much deeper 

 water than the School Prawn, it will survive for a very much 

 longer time out of water than the latter. It has a wide 

 distribution, and is one of the edible prawns of Japan. 



(3) Tiger Prawn, Penceus monodon Fabricius. 



This large prawn is not usually obtained in numbers like 

 the preceding two. It is a deep-water animal, and has a 

 very similar range of distribution to the King Prawn. It 

 attains an exceedingly large size, specimens of 10 inches and 

 more in length having occasionally been captured. During 

 last year (1908) large numbers of this species were captured 

 off Vaucluse, in the lower part of Port Jackson. These were 

 exceptionally large, some of the specimens reaching the 

 gigantic length of over 12 inches (measured from the tip of 

 the rostrum to the end of the telson). It is a very handsome 

 animal, being beautifully barred with vertical tiger -like 

 brown stripes. 



