FISH-FORMED SlREm 



ish claws : the fore feet have four, and the hind 

 feet five toes. Exckisive of the general colour 

 of the animal, the whole skin when minutely 

 examined, appears to be scattered over with very 

 minute white specks, resembling those on the 

 surface of the Siren lacertina. The sides of the, 

 body are marked by several strong rug^E or fur- 

 rows, and an impressed later?J line or sulcus is 

 continued from the gills to the tail ^. 



It may be added that the animal figured in 

 the 4th volume of the American Philosophical 

 Transactions and described by Mr. de Beauvois as 

 a new species of Siren, seems much allied to the 

 present, and may even be the same species, since 

 it appears to agree in the leading particulars : 

 the specimen, however, seems not to have been 

 in the highest state of preservation, since no 

 mention is made of any spots : its size is con- 

 siderably smaller than that of the present ani- 



* A species nearly allied to this is mentioned by Mr. Schneider, 

 who examined it in the museum of Professor Hellwig at Bruns- 

 wick. It was taken in the Lake Champlain, in North America, 

 where it is said to be dreaded by the fishermen, who consider it 

 as a poisonous animal. Its length is more than eight inches, 

 and its diameter nearly an inch : it is soft, spongy, and porous, 

 and is marked on each side by three rows of round black spots : 

 tail ancipital, compressed, and spotted ; lower edge strait ; upper 

 curved ; tip roundish or cylindric. Head broad, flat ; eyes 

 sipall ; teeth in both jaws conical obtuse, and rather long : tongue 

 broad ; mouth wide ; lips like those of a fish : on each side the 

 neck three branchial fins r feet four ; distant ; tetradactylous, 

 and without claws. — ScJmeid. Hist. Amplufasc, l.p, 50. 



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