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3 



SIREN STRIATA.— Leconte. 



Plate XXXVI. 



Characters. Head small, depressed; snout rather pointed; colour above 

 dusky, with a broad yellow stripe on each side, and another stripe still paler 

 below; abdomen speckled brownish-white. 



Synontmes. Siren striata, Leconte, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vol. i. p. 54, pi. 4. 

 Siren striata, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. SS. 

 Siren striata, Wagler, Naturlich. Syst. der Amphib., p. 310. 



Description. The head is small, sub-oval, flattened, with the snout rather 

 pointed. The mouth is small; the tongue is small, arrow-shaped, and pointed in 

 front, free only at its tip, and for a short distance along its anterior and lateral 

 margins. 



The nostrils are anterior. The eyes are lateral, and rather large for a Siren, 

 and are of a dusky-grey colour. The neck is contracted but slightly, and has a 

 single spiracle on each side, concealed by three fleshy prolongations, with fim- 

 briated edges, the anterior very small. 



The body is eel-shaped. The tail is long in proportion, thick, and rounded at 

 its root, but is soon compressed laterally, and is ancipital near its tip, though 

 hardly furnished with a rayless fin, as in the two last species. The anterior 

 extremities, which alone exist, are very small, and terminate each in three minute 

 unarmed fingers. 

 Vol. V.— 15 



