Sir W. Jardine on the Habits of Lepidosiren annectens. 25 



which advance by a wriggling or sculling motion of the tail, 

 and direct themselves by their small anterior members, which 

 also are used to assist in raising themselves in the water upon 

 any body or plant, and we should scarcely consider these mem- 

 bers at all applied or used as organs of touch. 



If the structure of this animal is remarkable, so also are some 

 habits in its oeconomical history, but we have to regret that 

 our information on these points is still very imperfect. Miss 

 Weir, in allowing us to examine the specimens of the fish, ac- 

 companied them with the following note, and a piece of the 

 hard clay alluded to in the Transactions of the Linnaean So- 

 ciety *, bearing the impression of the animal as if it had lain for 

 some time imbedded in it, and with the earth in such a state as 

 to allow" the form of the cast to be retained : "Fish taken in the 

 summer of 1835, on the shore of Macarthy's Island, about 350 

 miles up the river Gambia. They were found about eighteen 

 inches below the surface of the ground, which, during nine 

 months of the year, is perfectly dry and hard, the remaining 

 three months it is under water. When dug out of the ground 



and put into water, the fish immediately unfold themselves 

 and commence swimming about." They are dug up with 

 sharp stakes and are used for food ; the accompanying wood- 

 cut represents the manner in which they are folded up at the 

 time they are procured ; it is drawn of the natural size, from 

 a second specimen preserved in spirits, which seemed to have 

 been rolled up in dried leaves, or in the leaves which might 

 have accumulated at the bottom of the water of the inundated 

 ground ; several adhered to it, and were kept in their place by 

 means of a large supply of mucus which still invested the 

 specimen, and may serve as a provision to assist in preser- 

 ving life during the torpidity or hybernation of the animal. 



Note, — Since writing the above observations, we have per- 

 used the important paper by M. BischofFfrom the translation 

 pubhshed in a late number of the ^ Annales des Sciences Na- 

 * Note in vol. xviii. part 3. p. 328. 



