Reptiles (tnd Amphibians of Illinois. 385 



A small example of this species from Running Lake, 

 Union Co., was marked when alive with a bright orange hand 

 across the end of the muzzle and another one extending from 

 the sides of the mouth to the bases of the branchial tufts. 

 This remarkable batrachian is not uncommon in the mud of 

 lakes in the southern portion of Illinois. It is probal)ly pretty 

 strictly limited to that portion of the State, though Messrs. 

 Davis and Rice record it from northern Illinois on the strength 

 of a specimen in the collection of the Northwestern Univer- 

 sity at Evanston. What they feed upon is not very definitely 

 known. LeConte found nothing but mud in the stomachs of 

 those he examined, and we imagine this had been taken for the 

 minute organisms it contained, just as the tadpoles of frogs 

 fill their intestines with this material for a similar purpose. 

 The acute black corneous tips of the digits, especially marked 

 in young, led Linnseus to describe the Siren as possessing 

 claws, and a granulation of the skin observable in some alco- 

 holic specimens probably led others of the fathers to describe 

 it as possessing small embedded scales. Linnaeus is represented 

 as writing to Dr. Gordon of South Carolina, to whom he was 

 indebted for specimens of the Siren, that nothing had so much 

 exercised his mind, and there was nothing he so much desired to 

 know, as the true nature of this animal. Le Conte and others 

 proved many years ago, by finding spawn in its, ovaries that it 

 was an adult batrachian. So many southern species inhabit 

 the south part of the State that it would not be surprising if 

 Pseudohranchus striata should also be found to occur there. 



