Liberia 



<*- 



so in the Liberiaii rivers. It dislikes the glare of the sun and 

 always skulks in dark holes or luuler the banks of streams. 

 Its scaleless skin is a dull greenish grev, irregularly spotted 

 with black, but the body is covered with a thick slime which 

 conceals this coloration. This gelatinous coating appears to 

 be in some way connected with the glands on the surface of 

 the skin which generate the electric current that is accumulated 

 in the great cell at the tront end of the spinal chord, near the 

 base of the skull. This fish can give very powerful shocks 

 to man a!id easily kills other fish. 



Most Silurids, those of Africa and South America especially, 

 have accessory organs of respiration which permit of the blood 

 being oxygenated by direct assumption of air. Clarias can live 

 for a long time away from the water — indeed, allied species in 

 South America make long journeys over dry land from one 

 pool to another. 



The Snake-headed fish {Ophiocephalus) of Liberian waters 

 absorbs air direct through labyrinthine cavities behind the jaws 

 and can live for a long time out of water. Mastacembelus, an 

 eel-like fish with tiny sharp spines along the back, has its 

 nostrils slightly prolonged into a slender snout through which, 

 apparently, it sucks in air from above the surface of the water. 

 An allied species in India is said to drown — suffocate — if it 

 cannot reach the air to breathe. Fhere are of course the 

 celebrated lung-fishes of Africa, Australia, and America, which, 

 though retaining gills, have converted their air-bladder into 

 paired lungs and inhale air at frequent intervals. The African 

 and American forms hibernate in mud-burrows durino; the 

 dry season, away from water. 



This African type of Lung-fish (^Protopterus) ought to be 

 found in Liberia, but has not as yet been collected there. In 

 this country there is a species of Anabas (of the group called 



826 



