FISH IN THE PARANA. 



713 



takes place, the eggs are mere germs, which would ordinarily 

 perish at the same time. 



Its cutting apparatus consists of two scimitar-shaped lancets, 

 placed in a common sheath, with which it slices out a place 

 beneath the skin, large enough to bury it entirely, anchors it- 

 self firmly with its hooked pro- 

 boscis, and in a day or two dies. 

 The abdominal section, how- 

 ever, still lives, absorbing nutri- 

 tive material through its walls, 

 and growing rapidly at the 

 expense of the serum poured 

 out by the irritated skin into 

 which it is inserted. It increases 

 in thickness as well as in 

 diameter, and the eggs which 

 now fill it grow also, — when 

 mature, each being half as large 

 as a perfect flea. Thus it is 

 seen why the sand-flea cannot 

 deposit its eggs as do the rest of the family. Probably it 

 has no more food than it carries away within itself on quitting 

 the egg, and therefore cannot provide the material for its 

 greater development. Not only men and children, but dogs, 

 suffer greatly from them — the latter almost tearing their feet 

 to pieces in biting them out, and often getting them in their 

 lips and outer nostrils, from which they cannot dislodge them. 



1. MALE CHIGO. 

 2. FEMALE CHIGO, DISTENDED WITH EGGS. 

 3. THE EGG OF THE CHIGO. 



FISH IN THE PARANA. 



Among the many fine fish in the river is the dorado, — 

 something like a trout in colour, but deeper ; in shape, more 



