C i8 9 ] 
Received June 5, 1766. 
XXII. An Account of an Amphibious Bipes ; 
by John Ellis, Efq\ F. R. S. To the 
Royal Society . 
Read J une S»^F^HESE two fpecimens of a remarkable 
A kind of animal, which I "have the honour 
to lay before this Royal Society, I received lad dimmer 
from Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charles-town South 
Carolina, who fays, it is evidently a new genus not 
yet taken notice of by naturalids, and that it appears 
to him, to come between the Murcena and the 
Lacerta. 
The natives call it by the name of Mud-Inguana . 
It is found in fwampy and muddy places, by the fides 
of pools, under the trunks of old trees that hangover 
the water. 
Tab. IX. The I elder one B, which is preferved in 
fpirits, meafures about nine inches in length 3 and 
appears to be a very young date of the animal, as we 
may obferve from the fin of the tail and the opercula 
or coverings of the gills being not yet extended to 
their full fize. Thefe opercula, in their prefent date, 
confid each of three indented lobes, hiding the gills 
from view, and are placed jud above the two ieet. 
Thefe feet appear like little arms and hands, each 
furnifhed with four fingers, and each finger with a claw. 
In the fpecimen A, which is about 31 inches long, 
the head is fomething like an eel, but more compref- 
fed : the eyes are fmall and placed as thole of the eel 
are, in this they are fcarce viftble : this fmallnefs of the 
eve 
