EXISTING GROUP. 



329 



African Mud-Fish. 



great masses in the Chako swamps ; their shells being easily crushed by the power- 

 ful teeth of their devourers. 



The African mud-fish (Protopterus annectans), widely spread 

 "over the tropical regions of the continent from which it takes its 

 name, differs from the last in that the filamentous fins retain a small fringe 

 containing rays ; as well as in having six gill-arches, with five intervening clefts, 

 while there are three small tentacle-like appendages above the small gill-opening 

 on each side. In the Gambia River, where they are very abundant, these fishes 

 'are in the habit of burying themselves during the dry season, making a kind of 



AFRICAN MUD-FISH ( nat. size). 



nest, in which they pass a period of torpidity. Here they may remain for the 

 greater part of the year, only resuming their normal aquatic life with the return 

 of the wet seasons. Professor W. N. Parker, who received some specimens in the 

 torpid condition, writes that about a hundred individuals w r ere dug out and packed 

 up in crates still enclosed in the clods of mud. On arrival in Europe the clods 

 were opened, and the fishes placed in a tank in a hothouse. The statement of the 

 natives that the species grows to the almost incredible length of 6 feet suggests 

 that it must be a very long-lived creature. From the above-mentioned specimens 

 it was found that these mud-fishes grow very rapidly, have great vitality, and,, 

 although able to sustain fasts, are exceedingly voracious, devouring all the snails,. 



