Ill 
THE VICTORIA NYANZA 
37 
until the rainy season floods 
voracious fish : it eats 
frogs, 
fegpidoBirc n is a voracious fish ; it often 
bites its companions and nips off the 
ends of their filamentous fins. When 
the fins grow again they are sometimes 
bifid. 
fish remains in the cocoon 
the marshes. 
Lopidociref i is a very 
worms, insects, and 
crustaceans, and also 
exhibits cannibal in¬ 
stincts by biting 
and eating its fel¬ 
lows. Indeed, Newton 
Parker, who wrote an 
admirable account of 
the mud-fish, states 
that it is difficult to 
keep these fish alive in an aquarium for any length of 
time owing to their habit of killing and eating one another 
even when supplied with an abundance of food. The 
bite from their scissor-like teeth causes terrible wounds. 
feepirdfes4¥en has two pairs of filamentous fins, and of 
these the pectoral is longer than the pelvic pair, and 
occasionally one of these fins is bifid. Some years ago 
these animals were exhibited in a tank at the Zoological 
Gardens, and I noticed that one of the fins was bifid. 
The keeper told me that the deformity was due to its 
companion biting off the free end of the fin, and as the 
part grew again it became double. I am satisfied that 
this is a good explanation. It certainly accords with 
what we know of the lizard’s tail, for when a lizard 
loses its tail and regeneration occurs, the new portion is 
often bifid and sometimes trifid at the tip. When the 
ends of tails are bitten off, the parts are regenerated 
but never attain their normal length. The fishermen 
of the lake fear the bite of the mud-fish. 
When this fish burrows into the mud, the mouth of 
the flask-like cavity which surrounds it is closed by a 
lid perforated by a small aperture. The margins of this 
aperture are pushed inwards so as to form a funnel for 
insertion between the lips of the fish. Boulanger, who 
has written an interesting account of the mud-fish, 
5hJL >nuclrj^£ 
