CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



127 



The proteus anguis, siren anguina, or Austrian siren. — 

 This rare little animal has as yet only been discovered in the subter- 

 raneous caverns of Carniola at Adelsberg, and Sittich, and very 

 lately in those of Heiligenstein, near Zirknitzj and is also mentioned 

 in a German journal as having been found in Sicily. In shape it 

 much resembles an eel, whence its specific name ; but it has never 

 yet been found of more than fifteen or sixteen inches in length, and 

 about three-fourths of an inch in diameter. It is either of a pale 

 rose-colour or perfectly white, but after having been for some time 

 exposed to the light it becomes brown. Its skin is very smooth and 

 even, the head somewhat depressed, and with a lengthened obtuse 

 snout ) the eyes are situated beneath the skin, and are exceedingly 

 small 5 on each, side of the neck are three ramified bronchial gills, 

 of a bright blood-colour during the life of the animal. It is fur- 

 nished with four legs or rather appendages, for they appear to be of 

 no use to it, which are about three-fourths of an inch long, and the 

 feet of the fore legs have three toes, whilst the hind feet have only 

 two. Its motion when touched in the water is brisk and rapid, and 

 is entirely produced by the action of the tail unaided by the legs, as 

 I observed was the case with one which I procured from a professor 

 at Laibach. It has very fine and sharp teeth, which it seems scarcely 

 to need, having been kept for years together in fresh water, appa- 

 rently without any nourishment, but it has never been known to 

 bring forth young, nor is its origin or real abode at all known. From 

 the period of its discovery, its nature has been a subject of discus- 

 sion amongst naturalists, some imagining it to be the larva of a 

 larger animal, whilst others maintain that it forms a new genus ; 

 nor is the question yet determined. — Dr. J. Tobin. 



French experiment on an English pointer. — It is well 

 known that spaniels, and even mongrels from them, have the faculty 

 of setting game, imparted at first to the animal by constraint and 

 chastisement, and afterwards apparently transmitted to their off- 

 spring. We may hence ask, whether the talent of carrying is in the 

 same manner transmissible, though this does not seem to have ever 

 been denied. The French setters having never been known to prove 

 this incontrovertibly, M. Magendie learned that in England there were 

 pointers which carried naturally : he procured a couple full grown. 

 A handsome bitch bred from these was kept constantly under his eye, 

 and, without receiving any sort of instruction, she pointed and 

 carried game the first day she was taken out, and showed as much 



