Mr. Barnes on the Doubtful Reptils. 67 



of the Proteus which you hoped to receive from *Chiotte, I 

 fear you will be disappointed, at least for this season. I went 

 to see him yesterday, to learn whether he had been successful 

 in his endeavors to obtain some of them. He said that he 

 had spent several days in fishing for them, both at the falls and 

 at the mouth of the river, but had caught none, nor did he think 

 it probable that he should succeed before next spring. Another 

 fisherman, early in the season, caught seven in one night, 

 which were sent to me by a gentleman at the falls, whom I 

 requested to obtain some for me, if practicable. I kept these 

 alive several days : but from their confined situation, (all of 

 them having hooks in their stomachs with lines attached,) I 

 could learn little of their habits. I have thought a few re- 

 marks on their appearances, both exteriorly and interiorly, as 

 appeared from the dissection of one of the largest, might not 

 be unacceptable, especially if you have never seen any alive. 

 I would notice, in the first place, that the figure in Silliman's 

 Journal does not well represent the animal, in several parti- 

 culars. 



1. The color of the living subject is very different. The 

 ground color on the sides and back is bluish gray, but so 

 thickly spotted with minute dull yellow spots as to appear, at 

 a little distance, grayish-yellow — the belly approaching nearly 

 to white. Spots of dirty blue considerably darker than the 

 ground and about one fourth of an inch in diameter, are scat- 

 tered all over, usually without any regularity, though occa- 

 sionally presenting rows. On immersing them in alcohol, the 

 color of the abdomen is so altered as to approximate, (though 

 not very closely,) to the figured one above referred to. 



2. The forehead is much flatter in my specimens, than is 

 represented. 



3. The eyes, (black,) are distinctly on the side of the head 

 and far apart, nearly twice as far as appears on the plate. 



4. The appearance of the branchiae is totally different. 

 Those figured in the Annals of the Lyceum are pretty well 

 drawn, but the filaments are longer in the living animal and 

 more expanded. These tufts were of a deep and splendid 

 crimson. The alcohol destroys the color entirely, and in one 

 specimen which, (apparently from the wound of the hook,) 

 was nearly dead when I received them, the color was much 

 like the ground of the body. The animal keeps these in mo- 

 — . — i i. — . — ■ — — = ■*- 



* The Fisherman. 



