THE SIREN. 



187 



It is a native of several parts of America, and is found most plentifully in Carolina, where 

 it haunts the low-lying and^ marshy situations. The rice-grounds seem to be its most favored 

 localities, the muddy soil being the substance best adapted for its means of progression. Its 

 food seems to consist almost entirely of worms and various insects, of which it ^\111 consume 

 a considerable quantity ev^ery day. A fine specimen used to feed upon earth-worms, of which 

 it would devour about eighteen ox twenty every two/days. This individual passed the greater 

 part of its time beneath the thick stratum of soft mud \vith which the bed of the basin was 

 profusely covered. This was a very long specimen, and by an uninitiated observer would 

 probably have been taken for an eel\ 



The head of the Siren is small inVropo^tion to the size of the animal, tlie eye is very 

 small, and the gill tufts are three in number on each side, and beautifully plumed. It has 

 only one pair of legs, the hinder set being wSmting, and the front pair are extremely small, and 

 of no practical iise in progression. It ^s oiily three toes on each foot. The color is dark 

 blackish-brown, and the length of a fine, specimeni is about three feet. 



