34 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



tained the somewhat unclassical name of " The 

 Mud Iguana." And if you wish to be acquainted 

 with the proportions of the Transatlantic form, 

 know that Siren lacertina, one of the sisters, 

 (whose death we have above recorded,) grows to 

 the length of three feet, a dark anguillary beauty, 

 of some intensity of color, with two little hands, 

 (or fore feet, if you must be critical,) of four rin- 

 gers each, and instead of lower extremities, a 

 compressed tail, with an obtuse fin. When I last 

 saw the defunct, the creature was as large as a 

 child's wrist, and flounced about most vigorously 

 upon being lifted out of its inky bed. Death 

 came upon it at the end of March. Two days 

 before the fatal event it had devoured two small 

 fishes. The weather was unseasonably cold, and 

 frost and snow prevailed. 



But the siren has, of course, some vocal power? 



As if to make the mockery complete, this siren 

 was said to have the voice of a duck ; but even 

 this has been denied. The captive siren of the 

 Regent's Park was never heard to utter any 

 sound. 



This is no place for anatomical or physiological 

 detail, or much might be said relative to this most 

 curious form. Those who feel interested, will be 

 rewarded for referring to John Hunter, Cuvier, 

 and Owen. The last-named distinguished com- 

 parative anatomist has recorded some most val- 

 uable observations on the blood-discs of this ba- 

 trachian, and their comparison with those of man.* 

 The siren's blood-discs were obtained by the pro- 

 fessor from one of the external gills of the de- 

 ceased specimen when it was in good health, in 

 the month of October, 1841. 



But, without loading these pages with scientific 

 disquisition, it is impossible that any one should 

 even glance at the history and conformation of the 

 sirens without being struck with the anomalies 

 which they present. Pallas and the other dis- 

 tinguished zoologists above-mentioned, may well 

 be pardoned for considering the form that of one 

 of the SalamandridcR in its progress to perfection. 

 The first sight of it suggests the presence of a 

 salamander in a metamorphic stage, and it is only 

 upon close examination that the observer is satis- 

 fied that the animal has reached its completion. 

 It is as if Nature had been determined to show, 

 that if she wished to indulge in the freak, she 

 could arrest the animal's development, and, under 

 the guise of a salamandrian larva, present a crea- 

 ture perfect according to its kind, and forming a 

 finished link in the great chain of beings, as per- 

 fect, after its kind, as Sieboldtia maxima, in which 

 enormous newt, the slits of the gill-aperture 

 which 'always remains open in Menopoma, an 

 American salamandrian are closed. 



Dr. Von Siebold found this creature which 

 comes nearest of living beings to Scheuchzer's 

 Homo diluvii testis, now termed Andrias Scheuch- 

 zeri, and which has been proved to be a great fos- 



* See Penny Cyclopaedia, article " Siren (Zoology)," 

 vol. xxii., p. 66 ; where these observations and a history 

 of the animal will be found. 



sil salamandrian in a lake on a mountain of 

 basalt, in Japan ; just such a locality as we find 

 assigned in the Arabian Nights to enchanted 

 aquatics. The doctor brought with him a male 

 and a female ; but the former was so fond of his 

 wife that he ate her up on the passage home, and 

 arrived, consequently, in the best health and spirits 

 at Leyden, measuring about three feet in length. 



About the time of the siren's death there were 

 hopes that a young dromedary would make its 

 appearance ; and, indeed, one had been born in 

 the Regent's Park previously. But in this last 

 case the young creature was stillborn, though its 

 mother had bred it well. The period of gestation 

 is stated to be between eleven and twelve months. 



Viewed with the eye of even a comparatively 

 careless observer, the camel presents one of the 

 most complete instances of design with relation tc 

 human wants. There is not a part of its struc- 

 ture, from the bony framework of the skeleton to 

 the external hair of its coat, that could be omitted 

 without injury to the wonderful work, or improved. 

 Those very parts which seem deformities, are ab- 

 solutely necessary to its well-being and destina- 

 tion, and the hump and callosities become beauties 

 when examined with reference to the exigencies 

 of the animal, and its condition as the slave of 

 man. 



And here arises the question whether this hump 

 and these callosities are natural formations, or due 

 to the pressure of the loads with which the animal 

 has for ages been burdened, and to the weight of 

 its body. The callosities are seven in number, 

 and upon these the pressure of the body is thrown 

 when the creature kneels down and rises up. 

 They have been observed upon a newly-born 

 camel ; but no child is born with corns on the toes 

 and feet, whatever fashion and tight shoes may 

 have done for its parent at least I never heard 

 of a baby who came into the world with those 

 excruciating afflictions. Not that it may not be 

 admitted, that in a long course of years these 

 marks of servitude, as they have been termed, 

 may have been more largely developed. Dr. 

 Walter Adam, in his paper on the osteology of 

 the Bactrian camel, remarks, that the dorsal ver- 

 tebrae of the animal on which he made his obser- 

 vations had been modified by the pressure of its 

 loads. We know that by careful breeding, the 

 horns of the ox and the sheep may be made to 

 assume almost every grade of excess and defect, 

 till they vanish altogether, and a hornless race is 

 obtained. Those who delight in oddities, know 

 how to secure a breed of rumpless fowls and tail- 

 less cats. The dapper, clean-legged bantams, 

 for which Sir John Sebright was famous, were 

 remarkable for the absence of the sickle-shaped, 

 drooping feathers, from the tails of the cocks, 

 whence they were called by some bird-fanciers 

 " Hen-cocks." This absence had been the result 

 of the greatest care and attention to the breed. 

 In all these cases, the change or modification is 

 limited to externals. The internal organization 

 of the animals remains absolutely the same 



