120 



MH. .). S. JiUDGETT OX Till; 



Gran Chaco of Paraguay some three years ago with Mr. Graham Kerr. However. I 

 never found sncli holes, and was eompletely at a loss to know where to look for the 

 nests of Protojiteriis, the natives beinjn' entirely i^;norant of any but the most obvious 

 facts of natural history, and having declared to me that the " Cambona," as they called 

 Protopterus, was viviparous. 



One day my head fisherman, Scry, came to me in a great state of excitement to say 

 that he had found the children of the Cambona. It was scorching mid-day in the 

 height of the rainy season, the temperature 99° in the shade. After crossing one deep 

 swamp -we came to the edge of another swamp, and there, about ten yards from the 

 water's edge, on dry ground, was an oval-shaped hole filled with water, and in the water 

 was a great commotion (text-fig. 19) ; the surface of the water was being continually 

 lashed from side to side by the tail of a Cambona, the head of which was away down 

 under the ground. On being startled, the Cambona disappeared downwards, and the 

 fisherman, putting his hand into the hole, drew forth a handful of larval Protopteri. 



Text-iia;. 19. 



Nest of Protojitenw. 



Having now learned where to look for the nests of Protopterus, in a few days I 

 found a number of similar nests, but never so far away from the water as the first one, 

 which was found at the end of a period of drought, very unusual at this time of year. 

 I soon found a nest full of newly-laid eggs which must have numbered several 

 thousands, for from the first day to the day the larvae left the nest, twenty days later, 

 I took fifty per day for preservation without perceptibly diminishing the numbers in 

 the nest. 



