18 [Senate 



But when the quantity of water is small, and not often changed, it soon 

 finds the air in the water insufficient for its purpose, in which case it comes 

 to the surface, takes in a mouthful of air, and sinks again with it to the 

 bottom. After retaining the air for a time, probably long enough for the 

 consumption of its oxygen in the lungs, it suffers it to escape through the 

 mouth and gill openings, and it is seen to rise in small bubbles to the 

 surface. This animal is said to be found in several places at the west, par- 

 ticularly in streams falling into Lake Ontario, where it is said sometimes 

 to attain the length of two feet. The length of those taken at Winooski 

 falls varies from 8 to 13 inches. I have never seen one which exceeded 

 15 inches. The best figure of our animal which I have seen published is 

 in the annals of the N. Y. Lyceum, Yol. I, plate 16. The descriptions and 

 figure in Dr. Holbrook's American Herpetology do not answer to our 

 Menobranchus ; but as Professor Gr. W. Benedict has furnished Dr. H. 

 with an accurate colored figure, drawn from a living specimen, by the Bt. 

 Rev. J. H. Hopkins, we hope to see it correctly represented in a future 

 volume of his splendid and valuable work. We are strongly inclined to 

 believe the animal which he describes, to be a different species from ours. 

 Notwithstanding what he and others have said in proof of the identity of 

 the Triton lateralis of Say, the Menobra7ickus lateralis of Harlan, 

 HoLBROOK, and others, with the reptile described by Schneider, I am 

 strongly inclined to the opinion that they are different species. I have 

 therefore given the name suggested by Professor Benedict, and adopted 

 by Barnes, the preference, and have described our animal under the name 

 of Menobrandius maculatus, that being descriptive of our reptile, and the 

 other not so. 



