664 . Zoology, 



space of six years and four months; and Mr. Neill con- 

 ceives that, as M. Bosc, when in America, failed to procure 

 a live'specimen for the collection of animals at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, his was the only living example which has been seen 

 in Europe. Mr. Neill thus describes the habits of the animal, 

 as observed in captivity, and his own mode of treating it : — 

 " At first I placed the animal in a water box, containing a 

 quantity of hypnum and sphagnum, and set the box on the 

 trellis of a green-house or conservatory. One evening in 

 May, 1826, the animal made its escape over the edge of the 

 box, and must have fallen nearly three feet. It had on that 

 occasion remained from ten to twelve hours out of the water ; 

 but it had burrowed in moist earth during most part of that 

 time. The branchiae were doubtless to a certain degree dried, 

 and thus obstructed ; and it evidently took some time before 

 they could freely perform their accustomed office. An ex- 

 cellent drawing of the siren, the best that has been published, 

 was made by Syme (now of Dollar Academy) for No. vi. 

 of Wilson's Illustrations qf Zoology. In the process of taking 

 the drawing, ' the siren was kept for several hours, on dif- 

 ferent days, in a shallow white assiette [plate or dish], with 

 merely a sufficiency of water to preserve the gills in a moist 

 state ; and the animal repeatedly got upon the table, and even 

 made its way to the floor, but did not at all sufter from this 

 degree of exposure to the atmosphere.' 



" In April, 1827, I transferred the siren's reservoir to a 

 bark-stove or hot-house. Here it became more lively, and 

 ate earthworms, bansticles, and small minnows more greedily, 



" During the years 1829 and 1830, and down to October^ 

 1831, the animal continued to inhabit the same reservoir in 

 the hot-house : but we had discontinued the use of mosses ; as 

 these rendered the water turbid, particularly when the sphag- 

 num began to decay. I may here notice, however, that the 

 turbid state of the water had enabled us to make one slight 

 observation. The minute particles of decayed sphagnum 

 were so exactly of the same specific gravity as the water, that 

 they floated about in evey possible direction ; and during 

 sunshine, when the siren was lying perfectly quiescent at the 

 bottom, gentle currents were discernible, by means of these 

 particles, constantly flowing from the clefts in the branchial 

 apparatus, and occasionally exciting languid motions in the 

 delicate fimbriae at their extremities. We thought that we 

 observed in the animal a preference for pure water, as it 

 regularly became more lively as often as the water was 

 changed ; and we found by experience that any floating foliage, 

 that served to hide or cover it, was highly agreeable to its 



