Q22 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



"Full grown individuals of P. setiferus measure six or more inches in length, from the tip of 

 the large anterior spine to the tip of the tail spine, and three-fourths of an inch deep and broad 

 in the front or body part. These large specimens of both species are known in the markets as 

 'Prawns,' or 'Sprawns,' and the half-grown individuals are distinguished as 'Shrimps.' The 

 Prawns appear in our waters generally in March, or in warm seasons as early as the latter weeks 

 of February, and remain in season for two or three months, after which the supply diminishes, and 

 they appear to retire for a time to spawn. To what region or localities they retreat I do not 

 know, nor have I been able to learn anything concerning this matter from the fishermen. I may 

 add that I have never seen one of these Shrimp carrying its eggs. It may be that they ascend 

 our rivers for the purpose of spawning, and friends have called my attention to what they call 

 ' fresh-water Shrimp' that differ in no respect from the common Shrimp, and yet are found in the 

 rivers above the reach of salt water. In June and the succeeding months of summer, the half- 

 grown individuals or ' Shrimps' are in season, and for tenderness of flesh and delicacy of flavor are 

 preferred to the 'Prawns.' In the autumn they all disappear from our waters, and I suppose go 

 southward or else into deeper water. As Prawns and Shrimps die very soon after being taken 

 from the water, they cannot be sent fresh to any distance. They are used both as food and 

 bait." 



According to Stiinpson, Penceus brasiliensis "is often found in brackish water, and even 

 ascends streams to points where the water is nearly or quite fresh. It was thus found in the 

 Crotou River at Sing Sing, New York, by Professor Baird, and by myself in a fresh-water creek 

 near Somers Point, New Jersey." From these places it ranges southward to Brazil, and is found 

 more or less continuously along the Southern Atlantic coast, and the Gulf coast to Mexico. 

 Penceus netiferm has not been recorded from north of Norfolk, Virginia, but thence southward its 

 range corresponds with that of P. brasiliensis, at least so far as regards the coast of the United 

 States. 



Mr. T. E. Fisher, of Fernandina, Florida, who has been interested in the Shrimp industry at 

 that place for several years, furnishes the following notes regarding the Shrimps and Prawns, 

 which he distinguishes from one another in the same way as Professor Gibbes: "It is my belief 

 that the Shrimp (smaller individuals) move out into deeper water at the beginning of winter and 

 there remain until about the full moon in March or thereabouts, when they return to the bays 

 and rivers in great quantities as 'Prawns' and ascend the rivers and creeks, I think, to spawn. 

 This is the time when they are taken as food. After spawning, or about May or June, they 

 return to the sea. From May to August the so-called Shrimp, which then appear, are quite 

 small and used principally as fish bait; from August to December they grow quite rapidly. 

 September and October are the best shrimping months of the season, and May and June are the 

 only mouths when Shrimp are scarce, excepting during the colder mouths of winter, when they 

 leave the coast for a time." The seasons on the coasts of South Carolina and Eastern Florida, 

 therefore, nearly correspond, excepting that in Florida, the climate being milder, the Shrimp 

 reuiaiu, upon the coast much later in the season or nearly all winter. Mr. Silas Stearns, of 

 Pensacoia, Florida, writes that " Shrimp are abundant on all parts of the Gulf coast, and 

 especially so in the region of Louisiana and Texas. They live on the grassy or sandy flats, and 

 among the weeds on the bottoms of bayous and lagoons, in both salt and brackish water. On the 

 Florida coast they are found throughout the summer months, and appear to breed in the spring 

 or early summer. In the fall they make up in schools, and seem bent on migratory movements. 

 At this time a few are taken in seines and sold to the restaurant keepers of the cities. On the 

 Louisiana and Texas coasts the habit of schooling is much more common, and as the Shrimp 



