THE SIREN. 
187 
It is a native of several parts of America, and is found most plentifully in Carolina, where 
it haunts the low-lying and marshy situations. The rice-grounds seem to be its most favored 
localities, the muddy soil being the substance best adapted for its means of progression. Its 
food seems to consist almost entirely of worms and various insects, of which it will consume 
a considerable quantity every day. A fine specimen used to feed upon earth-worms, of which 
it would devour about eighteen or twenty every two days. This individual passed the greater 
part of its time beneath the thick stratum of soft mud with which the bed of the basin was 
profusely covered. This was a very long specimen, and by an uninitiated observer would 
probably have been taken for an eel. 
The head of the Siren is small in proportion to the size of the animal, the eye is very 
small, and the gill tufts are three in nnrnber on each side, and beautifully plumed. It has 
only one pair of legs, the hinder set being wanting, and the front pair are extremely small, and 
of no practical use in progression. It has only three toes on each foot. The color is dark 
blackish-brown, and the length of a fine specimen is about three feet. 
