38 THE LOBSTEK PKAWN. 



the beautiful Orange Pleurobranchus (P. plumula) ; 

 the great yellow Doris (Z). tuberculata) was adhering 

 to a stone out of water, having resorted to the shallows, 

 doubtless for the depositing of its ribbon of spawn, 

 where it had been left by the recess of the tide ; — and 

 the pretty httle Oowry {Cyprma Europma), with ribbed 

 porcelain shell, and elegantly painted body, was not 

 uncommon. I saw for the first time Pilumnus hir- 

 tellus, a little hairy Crab that has a great love for the 

 darkness, always resorting to the obscurest craniiies ; 

 and Athanas nitescens, a tiny species of Prawn, of a 

 dark sea-green hue, whose well developed pincers give 

 it so much the aspect of a lobster, that it is generally 

 believed without doubting, by the fishermen, to be the 

 young state of that much honoured Crustacean. The 

 habit of this pretty little species is to congregate in 

 some small hollow covered by the tide, usually beneath 

 the shelter of a protecting stone ; so fond is it of 

 companionship that if you find one you may pretty 

 surely calculate on more. I have taken, one by one, 

 as many as fifteen out of a hollow hardly more than a 

 foot square. It lives long in an Aquarium, but you 

 will rarely see it except you have occasion to empty 

 the contents, when you will see your Lobster-prawns, 

 as the last drops of water drain ofi', kicking and skip- 

 ping about from beneath some piece of rock, where 

 they had long been lurking unsuspected. 



In the accompanying Plate, several animals and 

 plants are depicted, which inhabit these ledges. In 

 the foreground, near the middle of the picture, Tro- 

 chus ziziphinus is represented crawling over a large 

 stone. Behind it, on the mass of rock, two specimens 



