Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 69 



year in a torpid state, during which time it eats no- 

 thing. But even while awake, it is capable of sub- 

 sisting, for some months, without any other nutriment 

 except what it receives from an atmosphere loaded 

 with moisture. — A full account of this curious animal 

 will be published in the second part of the sixth vo- 

 lume of the American Philosophical Transactions. It 

 is proposed to call it Lacerta Tapajaxin. 



10. A living specimen of the Siren lacertina of Lin- 

 naeus* has been in the possession of Mr. Peale, for se- 

 veral months. It is two feet and a half in length, and 

 is endowed with great strength. Its toes are not fur- 

 nished with nails (ungues), as is asserted to be the 

 case, in the descriptions of the animal published by 

 Gmelin, Shaw, and other naturalists. They are per- 

 fectly mutic, and rounded at the ends. 



The Siren breathes both by its mouth and nares. 

 The individual, just mentioned, is supported, in a 

 large jar of water, upon pieces of meat, and other ani- 

 mal matters ; and sometimes it eats grass. In its na- 

 tive country, it is said to live upon living serpents, 

 &c. It is, unquestionably, a finished animal, or an ani- 

 mal in its ultimate state, and not a mere larva, as 

 Mons. La Cepede, Mr. Schrebers, and other eminent 

 naturalists have imagined. 



* Muraena Siren of Gmelin. 



