OBITUARY NOTICE OF A LUNG-FISII. 



33 



OBITUAKY NOTICE OF A LUNG-FISH.* 



By Professor BASHFORD DEAN, 



COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



n^HEEE died recently in the aquarium room of the department of 

 -■- zoology of Columbia University, a specimen of the African lung- 

 fish, Protopterus annectans. Here it had lived for nearly five years, 

 thriving at the cost of generations of living earthworms and increas- 

 ing in size nearly three-fold. From the fact that this interesting fish 

 is relatively rare in aquaria, the present specimen is possibly deserving 

 of a formal memorial notice. 



It arrived at Columbia University in July, 1898, in a sun-baked clod 

 of earth, in which under native conditions the fish lies dormant dur- 

 ing the summer drought. In this state it had been living for several 

 months, and during the interval it had been breathing air, thanks to 

 its lung, in a very unfish-like way. Its earlier history may be written 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Clod of Earth containing Cocoon of Lung-fish. Fig. 1 shows entrance burrow, Fig. 2 

 remains of cocoon after escape of fish. 



with tolerable accuracy. Its early life was spent in some African 

 stream in the region of the Congo, where it had lived successfully 



* The lung-fish is generally regarded as a little modified survivor of the 

 ancient ' connecting link ' between the water-living fishes and the air-breathing 

 and four-legged amphibians. There is the clearest evidence that in the early 

 geological periods the lung-fi.shes represented a flourishing stock both in numbers 

 and kinds. At the present day they are reduced to three genera, one Australian^ 

 one South American, and one African. 



VOL. LXIII. — 3. 



