36 



EASTERN ETHIOPIA 



in 



sometimes attains a length of six feet : it is remarkable 

 in many points, and especially from the fact that it has 

 lungs as well as gills. In the dry season the marshes 

 in which this fish lives dry up, and to meet this change 

 tlie lepidosiren makes its way into the mud to the 

 depth of eighteen inches, and coils up at the bottom of 

 the burrow, where it makes a sort of cocoon, or capsule, 



Tlie mud- or lung-fish. In the 

 water it breathes l:iy gil 

 .and lungs. When curled 

 u]> in its eoeoon of mud it 

 Ijreathes by lungs. 



- '<^"^tSi- 



of hardened mucus secreted by the glands of its skin. 

 Sequestered in this cocoon the fish breathes entirely by 

 its lungs for half the year ; in this condition the earth 

 in which the fish is embedded may be dug up, and the 

 ball of earth with the fish in it iriay be transported 

 anywhere. When placed in warm water the lepidosiren 

 wakes up from the long sleep and resumes the double 

 method of breathing. In its ordinary surroundings the 



