6io 



The Living Animals of the World 



African species is perhaps the better known of the two. On the approach of the dry season it 

 buries itself in the mud at the bottom of the river, and when the hitter becomes dry the mud 

 hardens, holding the fish a prisoner till the return of the wet season several months later. A 

 considerable number of these fishes have from time to time been dug out and sent to England 

 enclosed in the mud into which they liad retreated. The writer remembers assisting in the 

 liberation of some during the last meeting of the British Association at Oxford. So hard had 

 the pirison-walls become that the mass had to be plunged into tepid water; this soon brought 

 about a dissolution of the soil, and in a short time the fishes were swimming about as if in 

 their native rivers. The African lung-fish is known also as the Mud-fish ; its American relative 

 as the LErinosiREX, or South Aiiericax IMud-fish. In the American species, as in its African 

 relative, the fins are whip-like in form ; but the hinder or ventral pair, wdiich corresjiond ta 

 the hind limbs of the higher vertebrated animals, are remarkable in that in the male thev 

 develop during the breeding-season numerous thread-like processes, richly supjjlied with bloody 

 the function of which is as yet unknown. 



The young, both of the African and South American mud-fishes, bear external gills closely 



resembling those of the 



tadpoles of the frog and 



- ■ other Amphibia ; traces of 



these gills remain throughout 

 life in the African form. 



CHIMJ5RAS. 



Shark-like in their 

 general characters, the 

 Chimeras, now briefly con- 

 sidered, are nevertheless 

 regarded as constituting a 

 very distinct group of great 

 antiquity. 



The modern representa- 

 tives of the group are few in 

 number— five species in alL 

 Of these, the species shown in 



1 ,, c! , ,, . the accompanying photograph 



and the Sea-cat are remarkable for the possession of a movable tentacle on the snout The 

 under surface of this tentacle is armed with small spines, and fits into a hollow in the head 

 The first back-fin is supported in front by a strong si,ine, and can be depressed into a sheath 

 m he bo,b'-walls The teeth take the form of large plates closely united with the jaws, and 

 studded with hardened pomts, or " tritors." '' 



One species widely distributed in the Mediterranean and Atlantic is taken usually in deep 

 water; it is the largest living species, often attaining a yard in length. Its occurrence is 

 however very erratic months elapsing without any being taken; at other times several wili 



S,r> T f-: tr"«/;''"'^'""' '-^^ " ""''''' ^"P^^^'^ f- -1^ - the Lisbon markets, 

 where it ranks with the Sharks as a food-fisli. 



^^he egg of the Bottle-nosed Chimera is perhaps the only egg with a mimetic resemblance 



esemtlT ^' ", ^^^'"'"f '" ^'™' '"^ ^''^''"' ^^ ^ ^""S^' ^° ^ ^o present a close 



lesemDlance to a piece of seaweed. 



Fishi" ^iirt • ■'7'"' T ^"^'V""! description of the great group of Fan- and Fringe-finned 

 S • lis The f '' ■ 'f T" " "°' ^"""^^'^ '^"^°^^-" '''' Lung-fishes, Chimeras, or 



n t dtseussed 1 e ""' '^^aracters used for the purpose of classifying this great group are 



eadily be Ob e e i ' "tT T^ " \'''' """ °' ^'""^ importance, when features sufh I can 

 readily be obseived, without demanding an intimate knowledge of anatomy, are selected 



Photo bti A. S. Rvdlandit Sons. 



BOTTLE-SOSBD CHIJl.ERA. 

 Tlie remarkable structure in front of tlie month is probably an organ of touch. 



