MUDFISH. A name given to several widely different. fishes which frequent muddy waters. (1) In the States, the bowfin (q.v.). (2) In California. a small marine gohy (Oillichthys mirabilis) which lives in shallow places that are left bare at low tide, and harbors in excavations made by itself in the mud. (3) One of the killi fishes (q.v.), the mummichog, or `mud-dabbler.' (4) Any of the lungfish or dipnoans, especially the rare Lepidosiren pa ra o.ra of Brazilian swamps. (See DIPNOT, and i'late of DIPNOI AND CH I ) This is a salamander-like creature which grows to a length of four feet o• more, has the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins united into one continuous fin, and the pectoral and ventral fins produeed into long jointed filaments. The head is conical, eye small, gill openings without covers, mouth small. and teeth pointed and cusped, adapted to crushing the fresh-water snails (chiefly Ampullaria) upon which it feeds. A closely related West. African fish (Protopterus
anneetans), sometimes six feet long, is very abundant in the thimbia River, where it sus tains a torpid existence during the dry season by burying itself in the mud, forming a sort of nest or 'case' of hardened mud about it. in specimens have been dug out and sent, each within its clod, to Europe, and kept alive in zo6logica1 gardens. They grow rapidly, are active and voracious the year round, when kept in tanks in hothouses feed upon flesh and all sorts of small animals, and frequently eat each other. in the wet season they swim and crawl about the muddy rivers they inhabit, and are sought as food by the natives. They are nocturnal and frequently rise to the surface to breathe. Their breeding habits are little known, but they are believed to be ovoviviparous. The young have ex ternal gills. Consult Lydekke•, Royal Natural History, vol. v. (London, 18P5).