PARENTAL CARE AMONG FRESH-WATER FISHES. 419 



guards them jealousl3% severely biting the incaiitioiis intruder." The 

 nests are irreguhir in shape and about a foot deep. " There Avas 

 never any lining and the eggs were laid on bare mud. All the males 

 found in nests measured about eighteen inches in length." .This, 

 however, is by no means near the maximum of size attained. 



The rate of growth varies with circumstances. One noticed by 

 Wood w^as 10 inches long and w^eighed " a few ounces " when re- 

 ceived in London, and in three years grew" to a length of 30 inches 

 and a weight of G^ pounds. " The rapidity of its growth," Wood 

 thought, " may be accounted for by the fact that it had fed through- 

 out the entire year instead of lying dormant for w^ant of water dur- 

 ing half its existence, and its size w-as apparently larger than it 

 would be likely to attain in its native state." 



The Protopteres are highly esteemed by the African negroes, and 

 they take advantage of their knowledge of the habits of the fishes 

 to secure a supply. They readily discover the presence of cocoons 

 in the dried-up swamp and dig them up with the surrounding earthy 

 covering, and these clods may be kept for future use. The flesh 

 is " very soft and white." Long ago the edibility, or rather savori- 

 ness, of the flesh w^as appreciated by whites. As far back as 1800 

 Doctor McDonnell described it as " excellent as an article of food," 

 and being "highly palatable, somewhat resembling turbot; a consid- 

 erable quantity of yellow granular fat is diffused among the muscles, 

 to which, no doubt, is due in some degree its savory qualities." 



THE I.EPIDOSIREN. 



The habits of the only generally recognized Lepidosiren are anal- 

 ogous to those of the Protopteres. It lives in stagnant pools and 

 watery hollows in swamps by the side of a river, but not in tlie river 



Fig. 11. — LcuiduHircn paradoxa. After Golcli. 



itself. Doctor Bohls w^as " unable to say from actual o])serva(ion 

 that the Lepidosiren can live in the dry nuid of the pools, but as 

 (he swamps do dry up when the Aveathcr is hot and little rain falls, 

 they must either die or pass through a period of nonaquatic life." 



This is pr()bal)ly eft'ected by burrowing and hiding in " the lower 

 regions of the mud," and they '* thus survive the drying up of the 

 1)ools." Kerr was able to trace the career of one individual more 

 fully. 



" On the approach of the dry season it ceased to Cat entirely : 

 the muscles especially of its tail underwent fatty degeneration," 

 It became still more sluggish than was its wont, '* remaining in its 



