188 ^SOP PRAWNS. 



five species at least in Weymouth Bay, some of wtich, 

 remarkable for the variety and beauty of their co- 

 lours, - 1 have noticed elsewhere.* All the species 

 burrow expertly in the sand, not entirely, but so as 

 just to leave exposed the two eyes, which, like the 

 garret- windows of a house (as Captain Harris says of 

 the eyes of the Hippopotamus), are placed on the very 

 summit of the head. 



On the weeds and sea-grass those pretty Prawns 

 are abundant which have been called .^sops, after 

 the old hump-backed fabulist, because of the projec- 

 tion of the third segment of the abdomen dorsally, 

 giving to these little Crustacea a curiously deformed 

 appearance, when extended. The most common of 

 our species, Cranch's iEsop (Hippolyte Cranchii), has 

 the hump very strongly marked. It is a pretty, active 

 little thing, darting rapidly from weed to weed, vary- 

 ing much in colour, but usually mottled and clouded 

 with white and purple. In another species just de- ■ 

 scribed by my friend Mr. Thompson under the name 

 ofjEf.' Whitei, the deformity is scarcely perceptible; 

 and this is a particularly lovely kind, being as elegant 

 in form as it is brilliant in colour, and therefore very 

 desirable for an Aquarium. The whole of the animal is 

 of a fine emerald-green, with a pure white line run- 

 ning down the back ; the body sprinkled with specks 

 of azure. In the Tank this pretty species is not very 

 lively, habitually clinging to sea-weeds and swimming 

 little. Unfortunately it is the favourite prey of the 

 larger Prawns (ValmmonJ, so that it cannot be pre- 

 served with these. If a few of the Hippolytes be turned 



* Ann. N. H. 1853. 



