164 
LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
become so thin that it looks like a mere chain of bony 
rings with legs hanging on to them. In this curious 
shrimp I want you particularly to notice the little 
bag-like flaps, g, hanging down where the legs join 
the body. These are its breathing gills, in which the 
colourless blood of the veins takes up oxygen as they 
lie bathed in the water. Now, when you next eat a 
prawn or shrimp, lift up the shield or carapace (c, Fig. 
56) covering the thorax, and you will find a row of 
curious bodies (b, Fig. 58), looking something like 
curled feathers, lying against its sides, and fastened 
Fig. 58. 
X, Ideal section of prawn, showing, s, stomach, below this the 
mouth ; /, liver ; *, intestine ; h, heart ; g, chain of ganglia or nerve- 
masses ; kg, head ganglia. 
2, Prawn with carapace removed, showing gills or branchiae, b. 
to the legs. These are the breathing gills of the 
prawn, and they will remind you of the " ladies' 
fingers " which we clear away in a lobster before 
eating it. Though both in the lobster and prawn the 
shield has grown over and covered these gills, yet 
you will see that they are really on the outside of 
the body, at the top of the legs, as in the skeleton 
shrimp, and that water can easily get to them under 
the shield. In the oyster, you will remember that 
