LUNG-FISHES. 





and when these dry up in the hot season, they burrow beneath 



the bottom, where they form balls or o 3 in which tin- 



time of drought in a semi-torpid condition. Dumeril, a French 



has studied the way in which these cocoons arc formed with fishi 



to France. He finds that the fish, on burrowing into the mud, 



immense quantity of slime, which fastens the mud 



ball. These balls are occasionally dug out of the earth and 1 



civilized countries, where a short immersion in water - 



fish, which swims as freely, with an eel-like motion, as in i' - 



Then it breathes by its gills; but when the water is dried up, the hi 



called into play. 



The o-reat interest for the naturalist in these forms is found in tl 

 that they occupy a position intermediate between the gar-pike 

 on the one hand, and the frogs and salamanders on the other. 



