12 PEOF. E. EAT LANKESTEE ON LEPIDOSIEEN AND PEOTOPTEEUS. 



Paraguay River, in " the swamps of the Chaco." Six of these specimens I have had 

 the opportunity of examining : two more closely, which I purchased for the Oxford 

 University Museum ; three purchased by the British Museum, Natural History (by kind 

 permission of the Keeper of the Zoological Collections) ; and one in the possession of 

 Mr. E. Gerrard, Jun. 



Since these specimens, from one of which (now in the Oxford Museum) the drawing 

 in the accompanying Plate has been prepared, were from the more southern river- 

 system of the La Plata, and not from the great Amazon basin, there is, prima facie, a 

 question possible as to whether we have here to deal with Natterer's species or a 

 distinct and new species. Castelnau did not hesitate to assign his specimen from 

 Lake Ucayali, in the Amazonian area, to a new species ; but probably, in view of the 



district near it. It appears that Natterer's and Castelnau's specimens were also from pools and not from 

 rivers. Dr. BoHs believes that, whilst there is a southern limit to the distribution of Lejmhsiren, it will be 

 be found everywhere in the northern parts of South America in stagnant pools which are of fair depth (5 to 6 

 feet). The particular swamp in which Dr. Bohls captured his specimens was four days' journey west of the 

 Paraguay Eiver, and its borders were inhabited by a primitive tribe of Lengua Indians. They make the 

 Lepidosiren and other fish captured in the pools their chief article of diet. The Leindosiren cannot be caught 

 with nets (on account of the weeds), nor by hook and line ; they are caught with a spear or harpoon of about 

 ■eight feet in length. The Indians plunge into the water in parties, prodding the bottom of the pools with 

 these instruments. Dr. Bohls himself went out with a party of ten Indians. The ovaries of the Lepidosiren 

 are preferred as an article of food to the salmon-like flesh, and are pressed into a kind of cake. The Lenguas 

 Indians call the Lepidosiren " Loalach." The Lepidosiren feeds chiefly on a marsh-snail {Ampullaria) which 

 grows as large as a man's fist, and has a dense shell which the powerful teeth of the Lepidosiren are well fitted 

 to crush. The bite of the animal is much feared by the Indians. Vegetable matter is found in the alimentary 

 canal of the Lepid^osiren together with the remains of the snails, but Dr. Bohls thinks it probable that this may 

 have been swallowed accidentally, and not as food. Few examples of the fish are taken in a complete condition ; 

 •one of the limbs may be missing, or the tail injured (as often noted also with Protopterus). The Jacare 

 {Alligator sclerops) feeds on the Lepidosiren in these pools, and specimens were found with the whole region 

 of the body posterior to the anus in a state of regeneration — the amputation having been probably due to the 

 bite of an Alligator. 



Dr. Bohls is unable to say from actual observation that Lepidosiren can live in the dry mud of the pools, 

 but as the swamps do dry up when the weather is hot and little rain falls, they must either die or pass through 

 a period of non-aquatic Ufe. Natterer relates that his Lepidosiren could give a cry like that of a cat. Those 

 observed by Dr. Bohls gave out a sound when removed from the water, caused by expelling air through the 

 narrow aperture of the branchial chamber. 



The alcohol in which the Lepidosiren were preserved acquired a green colour, and this colouring matter was 

 given out even after months, when the alcohol had been replaced several times (cf. green colour of the bones of 

 Protopterus). When Dr. Bohls left the Chaco the females were quite ripe with distended ovaries, but no eggs 

 apparently had been laid. The specimens brought home by him therefore are, many of them, in a state 

 approaching that c^ the spawning period, but not actually arrived at that condition (see above as to my 

 observations on the villi of the pelvic limbs of the males). Dr. Bohls tried to keep specimens alive in tanks, 

 but, as all were necessarily injured by the spear in capture, they invariably died on the second or third day 

 after they were obtained. 



