342 



2. ObSERVATIONS ON a LiVING AfRICAN LePIDOSIREN IN THE 



Crystal Palace. By J. E. Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S. Accom- 



PANIED BY A NoTE FROM Mr. A.. D. BaRTLETT. 



(Reptilia, PI. XI.) 



This animal has been exhibited for some months at the Crystal 

 Palace, appears to be in good health, and has iucreased in size. 



Mr. \V. Hawkins, iu the ' IHustrated News''(Supp. 20 Sept. 1856), 

 vvhich gives a very good figure of the animal froni life, observes : — 



" The three living specimens of this animal were brought to En- 

 gland from the Gambia, enclosed in balls of hard clay, where they 

 had been for eight months without showing any signs of life, until 

 those balls of hard clay were immersed in water, which caused the 

 clay to crack and break up, discovering dark-coloured egg-Uke forms, 

 vvhich also presently burst, hberating their inmates, which briskly 

 swam or rather dashed through the water, showing unmistakeable 

 signs of Hfe by feeding voraciously upon very large worms, small 

 frogs and pieces of meat that were presented them." 



The Lepidosiren uses its tail to propel itself forward and upward 

 towards the surface of the vrater. The subulate hmbs are very much 

 elongated ; the front ones are furnished with a narrow membrana- 

 ceous margin of nearly equal width the whole length of the hinder 

 edge ; the hinder one has a narrovv membrane on the middle of the 

 outer side ; they are exceedingly mobile and flexible, and are used by 

 the animal to direct its motions, and are more likę feet thau fins, 

 especially when they are within reach of some fixed body which the 

 animal can use as a fulcrum. 



There are two processes ou each side over the base of the anterior 

 members, which have been regarded as gills by some authors * ; they 

 are coloured hke the ręst of the body, and I could not discover, even 

 when examined by a hand-magnifier of one inch focal length, that 

 they were pervaded by any peculiar vascular structure, or furnished 

 vvith any cirri or other processes usually found on the extemal gills of 

 Batrachia. They scarcely moved during the time that I was exa- 

 mining the specimen, except when the animal was swimming, when 

 they Tfvere used likę the larger members, apparently to assist in di- 

 recting its motions, and they evidently form part of the anterior mem- 

 bers. They are placed rather close together somewhat above the 

 base of the elongated finned filament. These limbs are used to sup- 

 port the animal some height above the surface of the gravel when it 

 is at ręst. 



Indeed, all the motions of the animal much more resemble those 

 of a Triton or Lissotriton than of an eel-shaped fish. 



The upper and lower surfaces of the head are furnished with lines 

 of mucous pores placed in a symmetrical manner on the two sides, 

 similar to the pores observable on the head and chin of different 

 kinds of fish, and of Tritons and Lissotritons : and there is a distinct 



* See Peters, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. xvi. 348. 



