Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1890 — A Remarkable Fish. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Fish.

Leisure Hour. Africa is the home of many extraordinary animals, but there is no more remarkable creature than the mudfish, which inhabits certain of the rivers of western Africa, and, as its name implies, it lurks at the muddy bottoms of these rivers. At present, however, it is not necessary to go to Africa to see this fish, as it can be seen by any one who has the time in the reptile house at the Zoological Gardens. At first sight there is, perhaps, nouhingespec-ial-ly striking about this animal; it looks very much like an ordinary fish except for its curious long, slender fins. A visitor who knew nothing about the creature would probably go away with the impression that he had seen nothing out of the common. When the fishes arrived each one was encased in a ball of dried mud, lined with mucus from its body and ted by p„ small aperture to admit of breathing. This “cocoon,” as it is Bonietimes called, on account of its analogy to the earthen case fabricated by many caterpillars in which to undergo their metamorphoses, on being placed in warmish water was dissolved and the fish liberatei, The Habit which the mudfish has of making an earthen case of tbe mud at the bottom of the riygrvjs a most wonderful provision of nature for the exigencies of the climate. The Avers which the fish inhabits are liable to periodical droughts. When such a drought is imminent the fish retires to deep water and excavates a pit, in which it lies, covering itself over with a thick layer of mud. It can suffer with impunity the complete drying up of the river. But the most interesting fact about the creature is that during the timeof its voluntary imprisonment it breathes air directly through an aperture left in the cocoob, by means of lungs, just like a land animal. When the returning rains dissolve the mud and liberate the prisoner it breathes by means of gills, like any other fish.

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