40 THE PRAWN. 



then glides down towards the bottom, sweeping up 

 again in a graceful curve. Now he examines the 

 weeds, then shoots under the dark angles of the rock. 

 As he comes up towards me, I stretch out my hand 

 over the water ; in an instant he shoots backwards a 

 foot or so ; then catching hold of a weed with his 

 feet, and straddling its vertical edge, he remains 

 motionless, gazing up at me witli his large prominent 

 eyes, as if in the utmost astonishment. 



This Prawn, that comes to our tables decked out and 

 penetrated, as it were, with a delicate, pellucid, rose- 

 colour, beautiful as he is then, is far more beautiful 

 when just netted from the bottom, or from the overhang- 

 ing weed-grown side, of some dark pool. If you happen 

 never to have seen him in this state, let me introduce 

 him to you. Form and dimensions of course you are 

 acquainted with ; these do not change, but I will just 

 observe that it is a " sizeable" fellow that is now 

 before me, whose portrait I am going to take. Stand 

 still, you beauty ! and don't shoot round and round 

 the jar in that retrograde fashion, when I want to jot 

 down your elegant lineaments ! There, now he is quiet! 

 quiet but watchful ! maintaining a sort of armed neu- 

 trality, with extended eyes, antennse stretching per- 

 pendicularly upwards, claws held out divergently with 

 open pincers ready to seize, as if those slender things 

 could do me any harm, and feet and expanded tail 

 prepared in a twinkling to dart backward on the least 

 alarm. 



Look then at his cephalo- thorax, or what you 

 would perhaps call the head, the cylindrical shield 

 that you would pick ofi' as the first essay towards eating 



