CRUSTACEA, 525 
the Scottish coast, and off the Bay of Dublin. It is considered the 
most delicate of all the Crustaceans. 
Before concluding this chapter, we perhaps should not omit brief 
notices of the common prawn (Palemon serratus) and the shrimp 
( Crangon vulgaris, Fig. 347) as types of the order Amphipoda. Species 
of this order are found to inhabit all seas, and many of them perform 
important functions as regards the sanitary state and economic con- 
dition of the waters of the ocean. These small animals are the 
scavengers of the sea—they pick up and devour all dead matter, 
leaving (it may be) a clean skeleton, without a shred of fibre behind. 
In this respect they resemble the ants on land, doing their work 
always thoroughly and effectively. We need hardly mention, what 
is so well known to every reader, that prawns and shrimps are 
amongst the most esteemed delicacies at our table, and as articles of 
food occupy no mean place on the fish-stall. It is hardly credible 
what immense quantities arrive at Billingsgate alone and are daily 
consumed in London and the neighbourhood by all classes of the 
community. The shrimp, which although the smaller crustacean, is 
perhaps the finest flavoured of the two, is sold in much larger 
quantities than its more aristocratic congener, the prawn. The 
fishery of these savoury comestibles gives- occupation not only to 
regular able-bodied fishermen, who devote themselves to this branch, 
but also to large numbers of women and children, who, with their 
baskets and small nets, may be seen plying their vocation in a 
multitude of well-known localities on our coasts, especially on the 
southern and south-eastern shores. To the visitors of Hastings, 
Southampton, Bognor, &c., there is not a more picturesque or 
familiar marine picture than to behold a troop of little shrimpers, in 
their grotesque equipments, wading patiently knee deep, all in a row, 
as they push before them their pole nets. 
Without giving a detailed technical and anatomical description, 
which our space will not permit of, we may observe that the common 
prawn (Palemon serratus) is about four or five inches long, with a 
rounded carapace, which is jointed and furnished at the head with 
numerous long antenne, the eyes being large and round. The tail 
is broad and flat, the caudal laminze of which are furnished with long 
hairs on the terminal margins. The animal is also furnished with 
several pairs of feet, very slender, and ordinarily bent within them- 
selves. 
The colour is light grey, spotted and lined with purplish shades. 
In the water, however, prawns are almost transparent, from the nearly 
entire absence of carbonate of lime in the carapace; they are thus 
