500 



PROTEUS. 



some respects however, it has stronger resemblances 

 to the dog family, especially the foxes, than it has to 

 the hyaenas or the civets, though it stands very like 

 the hyaena on its legs, the fore ones being consider- 

 ably longer than the hind. At first sight it is not 

 very unlike the young of the common hyaena ; but 

 its head is differently shaped, and its toes are dif- 

 ferent in number. Its head is slender and hand- 

 somely formed ; and its muzzle, instead of being 

 blunt, is elongated, like that of the civet, or still more 

 like that of the fox. The teeth resemble a little 

 those of the hyaenas, but they are not quite so car- 

 nivorous. The ears are long, and thickly covered 

 with short hair, resembling those of the striped 

 hyaena ; the nostrils are on the point of the muzzle, 

 which is black, and very slightly covered with hair ; 

 the mustachios are long and bushy ; the hair of the 

 mane, which extends all the way from the head to 

 the tail, and the tail itself, are covered with rough and 

 shaggy hair, which is hard to the touch, and the indi- 

 vidual hairs are annulated by alternate portions of 

 black and white ; the rest of the body is covered 

 with woolly hair, interspersed with a few long and stiff 

 hairs ; the ground colour is white, washed with red- 

 dish grey, and covered by irregular lines of black on 

 the sides ; the legs are the same colour as the body, 

 with cross bands of black, except the tarsi, which are 

 black altogether. This is rather a handsome animal ; 

 but it is comparatively rare in Southern Africa, and 

 little known even to the native inhabitants. In its 

 habits it is strictly nocturnal ; and hence it is rarely 

 seen unless when its earth is found and it is dug out. 

 It appears to be to a certain extent social ; for as 

 many as three have been dug out of the same earth ; 

 but whether they join in hunting their prey has not 

 been ascertained ; they are about the size of a shep- 

 herd's dog, and are disposed to fight, and erect their 

 rnanes when they are annoyed. It does not appear, how- 

 ever, that they are vicious in their dispositions, or 

 make any serious inroads upon the farm yards of the 

 settlers. Their limited numbers, and their retiring habits, 

 tend, however, to render their history very imperfect. 

 PROTEUS, a genus of batrachian reptiles, closely 

 allied to the tritons and salamanders, and, as a living 

 animal, a singular inhabitant of singular places. Only 

 one species is known, and that one is very local, 

 being confined to the eastern Alps, and to some 

 very singular places among them. The lakes in the 

 neighbourhood of Sittich, in Lower Carniola, are the 

 places where it was first found by the Baron de Zais, 

 a zealous observer of nature, and by him it was 

 communicated to Laurenti and Seapali, who wrote 

 the first scientific accounts of it. Some of the lakes 

 in which it was observed, are of singular character ; 

 for part of the year they show an expanse of surface- 

 water like other lakes ; but at one season the whole 

 of the water withdraws into a hole in the bottom, and 

 the bed of the lake becomes a meadow for a time. 

 Subsequent research has found the proteus in other 

 waters than these lakes ; but still they are all connected 

 with the rocks, or are what may be caljed " grotto- 

 waters ;" and no living specimen has been met with, 

 excepting in some part of the Eastern Alps, between 

 Vienna and the Adriatic. In the early ages of the 

 world it appears to have been much more numerous 

 than it is now, though still in the same part of the 

 world. Remains or impressions have been found in 

 the schistous strata at Eningen, of larger size than 

 the living animal, but so much resembling it as to 



show that if they are not the same identical species, 

 they are certainly the same genus. 



Schrrcber, of the Vienna museum, was the first 

 who made proper dissections, and gave a detailed 

 account of the anatomy of these singular creatures, 

 since which time they have taken their proper place 

 in the system, between the aquatic salamanders and 

 the sirens. 



The known species was named Proteus angitinits, 

 by Laurenti, though some others improperly classed 

 it among the sirens. It is an animal more than a foot, 

 in length, and about the thickness of one's finger, 

 with the tail compressed vertically, ami lour rudi- 

 mental feet, with three toes on the fore feet, and two 

 on the hind ones. Its feet are very badly developed, 

 so that it walks slowly and badly ; but it swims easily 

 and rapidly after the manner of tritons. It is fur- 

 nished with internal lungs and also with gills on each 

 side, which latter are of a coral red colour, and 

 appear to be used in breathing much more fre- 

 quently than the lungs. The proteus is thus a 

 truly amphibious animal, capable of breathing either 

 dry air, or air through the medium of water. Its 

 gills are in the form of three little tufts upon each 

 side, and it does not appear to lose them at any 

 period of its life, so that the name proteus, which 

 means a changer, is very inaccurately applied to it. 

 Its eyes are so exceedingly small, and so much co- 

 vered by the integuments, which form a sort of pit 

 around them, that they are hardly visible. The cars 

 are also covered with flesh, and both these senses 

 appear to be in a very low state of development. It 

 very often happens, however, that when an animal h;is 

 the localised senses so imperfect that we are apt to 

 pity its helpless condition, the general sense of the 

 body is so much increased, as completely to supply 

 the defect of all the other senses. This seems to be 

 particularly the case with this animal, for it is ex- 

 ceedingly impatient of light ; and if exposed to a 

 strong light for any length of time it dies. Its jrene- 

 ral colour is whitish, with a rosy tint in the living 

 animal, but the bloom of this tint goes off after death. 

 The original opinion, that it was the larva of some* 

 sort of salamander has been totally exploded ; first, 

 because there is no salamander in the places which 

 this animal inhabits ; and. secondly, because the 

 skeleton of the proteus, and its genenil organisation, 

 are totally different from those of the salamander in 

 every stage of their existence. The protens has a 

 sort of larynx and windpipe, and utters a feeble voice 

 intermediate between hissing and whistling. 



The skeleton bears some resemblance to that of 

 the salamanders ; but the vertebrae in the spinal 

 column are more numerous, and the rudimental ribs 

 are fewer. The bones of the head more resemble 

 those of the siren. There is no crest on the cranium, 

 which is very much depressed. The bones of the 

 nose are merely rudimental ; but the processes of the 

 intermaxillary bones are long, and each of them is 

 furnished with a row of teeth to the number of eight 

 or ten. The vomers are also furnished with teeth 

 more numerous than the inter-rnaxillaries, and extend- 

 ing far back into the mouth. The proper maxillary 

 or jaw bones, and also the bones of the palate, are 

 entirely wanting. The under part of the cranium is 

 fiat, formed by a single spheroid bone, but there are 

 no walls or partitions of bone to the nostril?, which 

 open into the mouth. The neck and body consist of 

 thirty vertebras, and the tail of twenty-five. With 



