28o On a new species of SIREN. 



Mr. Peale has preferved the latter animal alive in water 

 for nearly thirty lix hours, at the end of which time it 

 died. He obierved, that as long as it lived it continued 

 fvvimming, making ufe of its feet and principally of its 

 tail ; that the lobes which terminate the gills were con- 

 tinually floating and in motion ; either, by a power of 

 motion belonging to them, or perhaps rather the effedl of 

 the motion which the animal caufed with its feet and 

 tail, and which was communicated to all parts of the 

 body. He does not recoUett whether the opcrcula opened 

 and cloied as in fiih, but judging from the conformation 

 of thole parts I am led to believe they do not. 



As long as the Inguana only, was known, incertitude 

 refpetting its nature might have placed it rather with h^\^ 

 to which it is true it bears an affinity by an eflential cha- 

 rader, gills, than with the amphibise to which it feems 

 to belong by all the other parts of its body. But now a 

 new individual of the fame kind, furniihed with four feet 

 like lizards, feems to indicate that it cannot belong to fifli. 

 On this difcovery three very important queftions arife. 

 1 do not flatter myfelf I fliall be able to refolve them, but 

 will endeavour to difcufs them and give my opinion. 



Are thefe animals fifh ? Do they belong to the am- 

 phibiee ? Or do they form in the order of nature a new 

 intermediate clafs. 



If we torm our opinion of the animals we have been 

 defcribing merely from their gills, there is not a doubt 

 but that we mull confider them as fiili. Meflrs Vicq 

 D'azir and D'/Vubenton, afcribe the following charaders 

 to fifh, That they are furnifhed with gills which give ad- 

 mittance to the air, that they have not lungs, vifcera 

 which are wanting in all oviparous animals, except birds 

 and the amphibias. But if we judge from the entire 

 conformation of all their parts, can we call thofe ani- 

 mals fifli whofe bodies, head, tails, and feet are fimilar 



to 



