42 



ME. .1. GRAHAM KERR ON THE 



[I'eb. ] , 



from the inside with a round piece of cjay, hollow and smooth 

 inside from the pressure of the Lolach's nose. Surface clay is 

 employed to plug the entrance, and the only thing visible from 

 the outside is this convex plug fitting into the rim of the round 

 entrance, and sometimes, adjacent, another hole more or less filled 

 up, often entirely so, and consequently invisible, where the beast 

 first entered the earth. The original entrance is sometimes used 

 (perhaps most generally used) for the door of the finished nest. 

 The outside plug is pierced with two or three round holes, very 

 small as if formed by a big worm, and in which a peppercorn 

 could be tightly fitted. These are evidently formed by the placing 

 together of the pieces of clay, because in the inside (which is 

 smooth and concave) the hole is not round but slit-like, showing 

 the joining. This is not always the case. Some are round inside 

 as on the convex side. The inside of the plug is slightly damp 

 and slimy, but tasteless. 



rig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 





' '■" / ) ^ 



Views of two dry-season burrows of Lepidosiren, as seen in section. 



" On removing the outer plug, a long crooked channel appears, 

 about two and a half or three inches in diameter, leading without 

 obstruction to the creature's bed. This channel, like the inside of 

 the plug, is moist and slimy, the moisture increasing in amount as 

 it reaches the head of the beast. The channel varies in length 

 from twelve to twenty inches. In the case of a long channel, 

 several plugs are employed, at every four or six inches. In one 

 nest five jjlugs were found. The first three were like the one at 

 the entrance ; the breathing-holes small and round on the outside 

 but not always round inside, the slit varying in size from a quarter 



