90 REPTILIA. 



Siren, Lin. 



Sirens are elongated animals, almost anguilliform, with three bran- 

 chial tufts; they have no hind feet, nor is there even a vestige of a 

 pelvis. Their head is depressed, the opening of their mouth small, 

 their muzzle obtuse, eye very small and ear concealed; the lower 

 jaw is armed with teeth all round, and there are none in the upper 

 one, but there are several rows of them adhering to two plates fixed 

 under each side of the palate. (I) 



S. lacertina, L. Blackish, and attains the length of three 

 feet; four toes to each foot; tail compressed into an obtuse fin. 

 It inhabits the marshes of Carolina, the rice swamps particu- 

 larly, where it lives in the mud, occasionally going on shore or 

 into the water. It feeds on lumbrici, insects, &:c.(2) There 

 are two much smaller species, 



S. intermedia, Le Conte, Ann. New York Lye, II, Dec. 1826, 

 pi. 1. Blackish; four toes like the large one, but the branchial 

 tufts are less fringed; its length does not exceed one foot. 



S. striata, Le Conte, lb. I, pi. 4. Blackish; two longitudinal 

 yellow streaks on each side; only three toes; the branchial tufts 

 but slightly fringed; length nine inches.(3) 



(1) It is in vain that some authors have recently endeavoured to revive the an- 

 cient idea, that the Siren is the tadpole of the Salamander. We possess speci- 

 mens of them much larger than any known Salamander, whose bones have acquired 

 their perfect hardness without the smallest vestige of hind feet; their osteology 

 also differs widely from that of the Salamanders; they have more (90), and differently 

 shaped vertebrse and fewer ribs (eight pairs); the conformation of the head, and the 

 connexion of the bones which compose it, are altogether different. See Oss. foss. 

 tome V, part II. 



(2) Barton denies that it feeds on Serpents, and that its voice resembles that of 

 a young Duck, as affirmed by Garden. Barton, " Some account of S. Lacert., &c." 



(3) The branchise of these two species have been considered as taking no part 

 in the process of respiration, inconsequence of which M. Gray has formed a genus 

 for them, which he calls Pseudobhanchus; it is easy, however, on their inferior 

 surface, to see folds and a vascular apparatus whose use is, to us, very plain; 

 besides this, the observations of Major Le Conte demonstrate the fact, that these 

 Sirens, like the Lacertinidse, are perfect animals. 



