222 JVeiv American species of Fringilta. 



west from Lake Superior, and has obligingly communicated 

 the following extract from his notes made at the time. 



" At twilight, the bird which I had before heard to cry in 

 a singular strain, and only at this hour, made its appearance 

 close by my tent, and a flock of about half a dozen perched 

 on the bushes in my encampment. They approached so near, 

 and were so fearless, that .my canoe-men attempted to catch 

 them, but in vain. I recognised this bird as similar to one 

 in possession of Mr. Schoolcraft, at the Sault Ste. Marie. 



" Its mournful cry about the hour of my encamping, (which 

 was at sunset) had before attracted my attention, but I could 

 never get sight of the bird but on this occasion. There is an 

 extensive plain and swamp through which flows the Savannah 

 river, cov ed wit : i a thick growth of sapin trees. My infer- 

 ence was then, and is now, that this bird dwells in such dark 

 retreats, and leaves them at the approach of night." 



Observations on the Genus Salamandra, with the anatomy 

 of the Salamandra gigantea (Barton) or S. Alleghani- 

 ensis (Michaux) and two new genera proposed. By R. 

 Harlan, M. D. Read Dec. 27, 1824. 



During my researches into the Linnean Lacerta, I found 

 myself very much embarrassed by the confusion which exists 

 in the present classification and arrangement of this depart- 

 ment of zoology ; the Salamandra have not unfrequently been 

 confounded with the Proteus and Siren, and these latter de- 

 scribed as the former ; and in a few instances including indi- 

 viduals generically distinct from either. This confusion has 

 been not a little increased by the late discovery of several in- 

 dividuals of this family, which cannot without violence be 

 referred to any existing genera. 



