Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/298

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A HISTORY OF KENT that from the 25th day of April yearly to the ist day of July.' The terms are a little indefinite. Adam White calls Palaemon squilla the ' White Shrimp,' but adds that ' other species beside this are named " White Shrimp.'" ' Mr. Lovett says of Pandalus amulicornis, ' It is in fact the " Red Shrimp " of the Thames excursion steamers. It works the tide up and down for its food, and is a most useful scavenger. The term " Red Shrimp" is applied to several diverse species round the coast. At Southampton I saw Palaemon squilla (the small prawn) hawked about under this commercial name, and P. varians, where it occurs commonly, is also so called.' The Handbook to Dover says, ' Pandalus annulicornis, the red or soldier shrimp, and Crangon vulgaris, the brown shrimp, are imported, for Dover is one of the very few seaside resorts where shrimping does not commend itself as a livelihood to any of its inhabitants. Palaemon serratus, the prawn, occurs sparingly to the west, but in St. Margaret's Bay, where the scour of the tides is less, they may be obtained in some seasons very commonly.' From these passages there is obviously no sure inference that the small prawn, Leander squilla (Linn.) has been taken in Kentish waters. On the other hand, allowing for changes in nomenclature, there is satisfactory attestation oi Leander serratus (Pennant), Pandalus montagui. Leach, and Crangon vulgaris, Fabricius, representing respectively three families, the Palaemonidae, Pandalidae, and Crangonidae. The first two species, which the unlearned may prefer to call prawns, have a long serrate rostrum projecting from the carapace. The third species, the common shrimp, has no rostrum worth speaking of It is further distinguished by the first pair of legs. These are moderately robust, but only subchelate. They are grasping organs, but the finger, instead of closing against a produced thumb with the action of tongs, closes down upon the dilated end of the palm. In Leander the nippers are of normal structure but small. In Pandalus they are so minute that till recently their existence was overlooked and the limbs were thought to end in a simple point. The second pair of legs are chelate in all the three species, though here also there are several differences of structure. In none of the three, nor in any others of the tribe Caridea, are the third pair of limbs chelate, as they are in the lobster and the river crayfish. Of the stalk-eyed Crustacea one more species has to be noticed. This is no proper prawn, though its correct name is Praunus jiexuosus (O. F. Miiller). It belongs to the order Schizopoda, which owe their name ' cleft-footed ' to the circumstance that their legs are two branched. The malacostracan appendages when fully developed have a branch called the epipod given off from the first joint, and another called the exopod usually given off from the second. It is this exopod which has in general disappeared from the limbs of the peraeon, but is retained in the Schizopoda. Colonel Montagu, who in Devonshire had himself found Miiller's Cancer jiexuosus, chose while recognizing that name to 1 Popular History of British Crustacea, p. 135. 2 The Essex Naturalist, xi. 255. 248