564 AMPHIBIA-LA. 



SECTION VII. 



Siren. 



Siren lacertina. Linn. 

 Mud-Inguana. Ellis. 



This species stands eminently distinguished in the list of animals 

 by the ambiguity of its characters, which are such as to have in- 

 duced the great Linnaeus to institute it for a new order of amphibia, 

 under the title of meantes * ; an order, however, which does not 

 stand among the rest of the amphibia in the Systema Naturae, but 

 is mentioned in a note at the end of the second part of the first vo- 

 lume of that work. 



The genus with which the siren has evidently the greatest possible 

 affinity, is the lacerta, or lizard. It even very much resembles the 

 larve, or first state of a lacerta ; and it is still doubtful whether it 

 may not really be such : yet it has never been observed in any other 

 state, having two feet only, without any appearance of a hind pair : 

 the feet are also furnished with claws, whereas the larves of all the 

 lacertae are observed to be without claws ; or, in the Linnaean phrase, 

 digitis muticis : the mouth has several rows of smallish teeth : the 

 body is eel-shaped, but slightly flattened beneath ; marked on the 

 sides by several wrinkles, and slightly compressed towards the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, which is edged with a kind of soft skin, or adi- 

 pose fin, as it were : on each side the neck are three ramified 

 branchial processes, resembling, on a larger scale, those belonging 

 to the larves of water newts, and at the base are the openings into 

 the gills ; the eyes are very small, and blue. The general colour 

 of the animal is a deep or blackish brown, scattered over, especially 

 on the sides, with numerous minute whitish specks. Its size nearly 

 equals that of an eel, being frequently found of the length of more 

 than two feet. It is a native of North America, and more particu- 

 larly of South Carolina, where it is not very uncommon in muddy 

 and swampy places, living generally under water, but sometimes 

 appearing on land. It has a kind of squeaking or singing voice, 

 for which reason Linnaeus distinguished it by the title of siren. 



* The characters of this order are thus given by Linnaeus, viz. branchiae and 

 pnlmones siraul. Pedes brachiati, unguiculati. The generic character stands 

 thus, viz. corpus bipedum, caudatum, nudum. Pedes brachiati, unguiculati. 



