370 REPTILES. BATRACHIA. 



The habits of the Siren are still but little known. It seems indeed to be a rare 

 animal even in America ; for M. Bosc sought it in vain during eighteen months of 

 his residence at Charleston. The latest account of it, which is contained in Silli- 

 man's Journal for October 1826, is far from satisfactory. It may here be mentioned r 

 that, in May 1825, a living specimen was received from Charleston by Dr Monro 

 of Edinburgh. The professor fortunately confided the charge of this interesting ani- 

 nial to Patrick Neill, Esq. a gentleman fully qualified to observe and record its pe- 

 culiar characters and habits, in whose collection at Canonmills it still remains. This 

 excellent naturalist lately communicated the result of his observations for a period of 

 upwards of two years to the Wernerian Society. The Siren is kept in a box among 

 water, but where it has the choice of leaving the water, and reposing among moss or 

 hypnum, if so inclined. It is fed with earth-worms, which it takes at intervals of some 

 days. It is quite lively, particularly in the summer months. It begins to croak like 

 a frog in April, but has no v ox cantillans, or at least no change of note. The water 

 box in which it is kept is placed on a trellis shelf in a hot-house, about three feet 

 from the ground. On one occasion it had made its way over the margin of the box 

 and had fallen to the ground ; but it was not hurt, and is not therefore a fragile ani- 

 mal, as was long supposed. It may be added, that on this particular occasion it 

 lived for many hours out of water, when it must have breathed solely by its internal 

 lungs. On the other hand, it has often been observed to lie quiet at the bottom of 

 the water for many hours, breathing of course wholly by means of the air separated 

 from the water by its external branchia;. Upon the whole, the observations made 

 on this living specimen decidedly tend to confirm the opinion of Linnaeus and Cuvier, 

 that the Siren is a perfect animal. 



FOSSIL REPTILES. 



Fossil Reptiles are met with in different parts of Europe. Of the Chelonian Or- 

 der, fossil marine tortoises have been found in the coarse marine limestone at the vil- 

 lage of Melsbroeck in the neighbourhood of Brussels, in the coarse chalk of the hill 

 of St Peter near Maestricht ; and in the limestone slate of Claris. The gypsum quarries 

 near Paris have afforded specimens of fresh water tortoises. In England, fossil re- 

 mains of tortoises have been found in the Isle of Sheppey ; in the iron-sand beds of 

 Tilgate Forest, in the argillaceous limestones called Purbeckbeds; and in the Stones- 

 field slate and lias ; and impressions of the feet of an animal considered to be of this 

 order have been found in the red sandstone of Corncockle Quarry in Dumfries-shire. 



Of Saurian Reptiles, fossil crocodiles have been found in the bluish-gray compact 

 limestone at the bottom of the cliffs of Honfleur and Havre ; at Altorf near Nurem- 

 berg, in coarse gray 'marble; and in England, near Whitby, in pyritical slate ; at 

 Brentford, in Lancashire silt, in the clay of Sheppey, the-iron-sand of Tilgate Forest, 

 and near Oxford. Fossil remains of Monitors have been found on the Continent ; in 

 the quarries of Maestricht, one gigantic species twenty-four feet long ; at Thuringia, 

 near Manheim, and in the quarries of Aichstedt. In Britain, in the calcareous slate 

 of Stonesfield, near Woodstock, the remains of the Megalosaurus, a gigantic ani- 

 mal, intermediate between the Crocodile and Monitor, and supposed to have been 

 forty feet long. The Iguanodon^ another gigantic species supposed to have been up- 

 wards of sixty feet long, occurred in the iron-sand of Tilgate Forest. The fossil 

 genus Ichthyosaurus^ from the lias limestone of England, furnishes several remarka- 

 ble remains, partaking of the characters of the Dolphin, Crocodile and Lizard, with 

 the vertebra of a fish. And the species of Mr Conybeare's genus Plesiosaurus oc- 

 cur in lias at Lyne and in the Kimmeridge clay. 



Of the Ophidian order remains of vertebrae occur in the red calcareous breccia in 

 the environs of Cette, mixed with bones of other animals. 



Fossil remains of Batrachian reptiles have been found on the Continent in the 

 fetid calcareous schistus of CEningen, among remains of fishes. The Proteus of CEn- 

 ingen, first described and figured by Scheuchzer as the remains of an antediluvian hu- 

 man being, was afterwards ascertained by Cuvier to be an extinct species of Sala- 

 mander. A fossil toad has been found in the same strata. 



None of the fossil species of reptiles hitherto discovered are identical with the 

 existing species. 



