ELECTRIC FISH 



torpedoes, are the only sea fishes provided with such 

 an equipment. Fresh water, on the other hand, has 

 three kinds of electric fish, the mormyros, the electric 

 catfish, and the electric eel, which all live in warm sub- 

 tropical regions, the first two in Africa, the last in 

 Central and Southern America. 



The Mormyros, distinguishable by their long snouts, 

 drawn out like a tube, are little better equipped than the 

 skate. They have only a small electric organ. Their 

 body is not flat but of the usual shape, and has the 

 electric organ at the hinder end of the trunk near the 

 place where the caudal fin is attached. The catfish show 

 a definite improvement upon this. They are typical 





Fig. 30. — Electric Catfish, which may be two feet in length. 



of their family, with long plumpish bodies, bearing 

 long flexible barbs projecting round the mouth. They 

 may be from 20 to 30 inches in length. Their 

 electrical apparatus is not massed together as in the 

 torpedo, but spread almost round the whole of the 

 body like a cloak. Consequently, although it is not 

 very thick, its extension gives it a capacity greater 

 than that of the torpedo, its total voltage being greater 

 and the discharge more intense and startling. 



Of all the electric fishes, the best equipped are cer- 

 tainly the electric eels. In the natural state they live 

 in the vast basin of the Amazon, especially its lower and 

 middle reaches. There they are common, living by 

 choice in calm, almost stagnant, waters, burying them- 

 selves in the muddy bottom. They look like enormous 

 eels, though zoologically they are not akin to them. 

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