EIGENMANN: THE PYGIDIIDiE, A FAMILY OF SOUTH AMERICAN CATFISHES. 263 



I am indebted to Professor Selatie E. Stout for the following translation: 



I should briefly mention another fish which is dangerous to man. The Brazilians call it 

 Candiru; the Spaniards in Maynas 3 call it Canero. It is impelled by a curious instinct to enter 

 the excretory openings of the human body. Whenever it comes in contact with these openings 

 of persons bathing in the stream, it violently forces its way in, and having entered, it causes 

 constant pain, and even danger of life, by biting the flesh. These fishes are greatly attracted by 

 the odor of urine. For this reason, those who dwell along the Amazon, when about to enter the 

 stream, whose bays abound with this pest, tie a cord tightly around the prepuce and refrain from 

 urinating. This fish belongs to Cetopsis, a genus which I have already described. But I do not 

 know whether it is the younger individuals of the two species which I have described (C. candiru 

 and C. ccccutiens), or whether a third species of smaller fishes has been given this cruel instinct 

 by nature. 



The habit here described by Spix in reality belongs to fishes of which he did 

 not secure specimens. 



In 1808, Domingo Vandelli, professor of natural history at Lisbon, sent Lace- 

 pede three small fishes, which he placed with the Loricariidce. They were described 

 by Valenciennes (Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XVIII, 1846, p. 386, 

 pi. 547) as Vandeilia cirrhosa, and placed in their Esoces. Nothing was said of the 

 habits, and even the habitat of the specimens was unknown. The identification 

 of Vandeilia with the urinophilous habit came later. 



Castelnau in his Animaux d'Amerique du Sud, Poissons, 1855, says of his 

 Trichomycterus pusillus = Pareiodon microps Kner: 



Cette espece est, de la part des pecheurs de l'Araguay, l'objet d'un prejuge des plus singuliers, 

 ils pretendent qu'il est ties dangereux d'uriner en riviere: car, disent ils, ce petit animal s'elance 

 hors de l'eau et penetre dans l'urethre en remontant le long de la colonne liquide. 



As this species reaches a length of at least six inches and a corresponding thick- 

 ness, Castelnau was probably mistaken in the species acting in this remarkable 

 manner. 



It seems that Paul Marcoy (Voyage a travers I'Amerique du Sud, Vol. II, p. 

 145-147) gives an account with a figure of a Candiru. I have not seen this book, 

 but Ltitken says: "Etude de Candiru signeret med den Rejsendes Initialer, er en 

 fuldstandig Umulighed, hvad den saa skal iorstille" (Vidensk. Meddel. Naturh. 

 Foren. Kjobenhavn, 1891, p. 60). 



Lange "In the Amazon Jungle," p. 214, says: 



In fact, throughout the Amazon this little worm-like creature, called the kandiroo, is so 

 omnipresent that a bath-house of a particular construction is necessary. The kandiroo is usually 



3 Probably Maina, an Igarape tributary to the Amazon, near the Rio Negro; or a province of Peru 

 with Moyobainba for its capital. 



