56 *1 new species of Siren. 



lobate covering ; tail compressed, with a narrow rayless fin 

 above and below. 



In the description quoted from Pennant, the teeth are said 

 to be in transverse rows, by which may be meant the clusters 

 of teeth in the roof of the mouth ; but then he says the body 

 is covered with scales. Linnaeus says there is a double row 

 of teeth in each jaw, and the apparatus about the spiracula is 

 so different from any thing in the Siren, that we must suppose 

 he examined an animal now unknown to us ; from the teeth, 

 it might be thought that he had the Amphiuma before him ; 

 but this last, besides having four feet and wanting the fringed 

 appendages to the neck, could, to one examining it anatomi- 

 cally, have presented this striking difference from the Siren : 

 it has a bony and solid skull like that of a lizard, while the 

 Siren (both species) has it composed of separate bones like a 

 fish or a frog, herein approaching the Proteus more nearly 

 than any other of the anomalous reptiles that have lately begun 

 to engage the attention of naturalists. It is to be hoped that 

 the question concerning the Siren, whether it be a perfect ani- 

 mal or not, will now be at a rest ; in both species there could 

 be no doubt of the perfect state of the individuals which I had ; 

 the single circumstance of many of them containing spawn 

 precisely similar to that of the frog, showed that they were 

 perfect, and if no external difference between them and such 

 as had no spawn was to be observed, the conclusion that these 

 likewise were perfect, is equally as sound j besides, they may 

 be seen of all sizes. 



A few observations on two other animals of a similar na- 

 ture to those already alluded to in this paper, I hope will not 

 be considered inappropriate, and will, I trust, be received by 

 the Society as an appendix to remarks somewhat crude, which 

 a variety of other avocations has prevented me from making 

 what it were to be wished they were, more perfect. 



In the last number of Silliman's Journal, Professor Mitchill 

 has described an animal, which he calls a Proteus, the vulgar 

 jpame of which is Hell-bender. The name is nothing ; it is 





