Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — The African Lungfish. [ARTICLE]

The African Lungfish.

The African lungfish grows very rap.dly, has great vitality, and, although fasting long, is exceedingly voracious, devouring snails, earthworms, as well as small fish, besides killing and eating each other, so that it is difficult to keep many together. They are most active at night, keeping mostly in the shallow water, when they move deliberately about in the bottom, alternately using the peculiar limbs of either side, though their movements are not regular. Gray has compared these movements with those of a Triton, and several other observers have noticed them. The powerful tail forms a most efficient organ for swimming rapidly through the water. It is well known that Protopterus come to the surface to breathe at short intervals, and thus it is evident that the longs perform an important, if not the ehief part in respiration during the active life of the anima). The air passes out again through the opercular aperture, and the movements of the operculum itself indicate the fact that the bronchial as well as pulmonary respiration takes place.— [New York Independent.