280 On the Minhocao of the Goyanese. 



effects produced by the Gymnoti are, according to Poii?, 

 well known to the mulattoes and negroes, who often felt tbem, 

 and have nothing in common with what is related of the 

 minhocao. Professor Gervais, to whom I mentioned my 

 doubts, directed my attention to the description which P. L. 

 BischoiF has given of the Lepidosiren ;* and, indeed, the little 

 we know of the minhocao agrees well enough with what is 

 said of the rare ami singular animal discovered by M. Natterer. 



That naturalist found his Lepidosiren in some stagnant 

 waters near the Rio da Madeira and of the Amazon. The 

 minhocao is not only said to be in rivers, but also in lakes. 

 It is, without doubt, very far from the lake Feia to the two 

 localities mentioned by the Austrian traveller ; but we know 

 that the heats are excessive at Goyaz. La Serra da Para- 

 nah/ba e do Tocantim, which crosses this province, is one 

 of the most remarkable dividers of the gigantic water-courses 

 of the north of Brazil from those of the south ; the Rio des 

 Piloes belongs to the former, as does the Rio da Madeira. 



The Lepidosiren paradoxa of M. Natterer has actually the 

 form of a worm, like the minhocao. Both have fins ; but it 

 is not astonishing that they have not always been recognised 

 in the minhocao, if, as in the Lepidosiren, they are, in the ani- 

 mal of the Rio des Piloes, reduced to simple rudiments. *' The 

 teeth of the Lepidosiren," says BischofF, " are well fitted for 

 seizing and tearing its prey; and to judge of them from their 

 structure, and from the muscles of their jaw, they must move 

 with considerable force." These characters agree extremely 

 well with those which we must of necessity admit in the 

 minhocao, since it seizes very powerfully upon large animals, 

 and drags them away to devour them. It is, therefore, pro- 

 bable that the minhocao is an enormous species of Lepido- 

 siren ; and we might, if this conjecture were changed into 

 certainty, join this name to that of the minhocao, to designate 

 the animal of the lake Feia and of the Rio des Piloes, 



• Annales des Sciences Naturdlef. 2me Serie, torn. xiv. p. 1 16, 



