282 Barnes on Batracian Animals and doubtful Reptils- 
Teeth, none in the jaws ; in the palate, numerous, disposed 
m oblong plats on each side. ~ 
Figures. Linne’s Dis. on the Siren, fig. ¢. (Upsal, 1766.} 
Stewart’s Elements of Natural History, pl. 5, fig. 4.* 
Brewster’s Encyclopedia, pl. 298, fig. 24. 
Shaw’s Zoology Amph. pl. 138. 
Rees’s Cyclopedia, art. amphibia, pl. 6, fig. 1. 
Note. This figure has too fierce an aspect for so harmless 
an animal. 
Synonyms. Murena Siren. Gm. Linn. TPurton’s Linn- 
Murena Siren. Stewart’s Elements. 
MudIguana. Ellis. Phil. trans. vol. vi. 189. 
DESCRIPTION AND HABITS. 
* Body black above, dusky beneath, speckled with yellowish ; 
or above dusky, beneath paler, speckled every where with 
yellowish ; eyes small, blaish ; nostrils placed near the edge of 
the upper lip, small, distant ; jaws toothless, furnished with a 
hard black skin. Spiracles, three on cach side, near the neck, 
Jinear ; the interior edge serrate, with a fringed trilobate cov- 
ering ; tail compressed, with a narrow rayless fin above and 
below.” (Le Conte.) Tongue free ; sides marked with trans- 
verse furrows, imitating ribs.+ It inhabits the muddy swamps 
of South Carolina, and, like the Siren Striata and the Amphi- 
ama, has not been found in any other region. [It lives prin- 
cipally “‘ in the firm and moist clay” or thick mud, and is, at 
times, also found in the water. A fine specimen in Scudder’s 
museum has already lived several years in a glass jar of clear 
and seem contented only when they are in 
ment. It is remarked that when these Sirens are themselves 
concealed in their retreat, the place of the head and gills is 
ae _ Sage a the rising of small air bubbles from 
* spiracles. This fact may lead to the determination of 
© question concerning the function of these doubtful organs. 
Several respectable naturalists have published descriptions of 
and strong teeth;” but these descriptions are so dif- 
* Several of these §. : 
sures appear to be co: of izinal 
+ This appears to be : pies of one original. 
mander to ee oae case with all the tailed Batracians, from the Sala- 
