25$ Dr. S'cHREiBER.s’s Description oj 
The bones seem to be of the same conformation and nature 
as in salamanders. I could not construct a perfect skeleton ; 
as the flesh was so strongly contracted and hardened by the 
spirit, that I was obliged to boil it some time, by which the 
bones were dissolved. However, I can assert, that there were 
no ribs, or sternum ; but there were bones in the tail. 
Though I shall not enter into a comparison of this animal with 
those which are analogous to it,* I must say something respect- 
ing its analogy with the famous Siren lacertina of Linnaeus; with 
which it agrees in the most striking particulars, viz. in having 
gills and lungs, and therefore causes the same doubts about 
its being a perfect animal. The doubts respecting the Siren are 
not yet removed; but are rather increased, by different anato- 
mical accounts, given by two equally renowned anatomists. 
Hunter and Camper. In conformity to the opinion of the 
latter, who asserted that the animal was destitute of lungs, it 
has lately been removed from the class of amphibious animals, 
and transferred to that of fishes, under the name of Muraena 
Siren. The principal difference between the Siren and the 
animal here described, (besides the former having only two feet, ) 
consists in the head and lungs. In the Siren, the head is short, 
having no rostrum, but a pointed small mouth, conspicuous 
eyes, and nostrils. The lungs, although constructed also of a 
simple membrane, without cellular subdivisions, and running 
down the whole length of the body on each side, are divided. 
By these I mean, , the larvse of Salamanders and of some water lizards, the Proteus 
Tritoneus of Lau ren ti and Soelmann, and the animal lately (but very imperfectly) 
described in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for the year 1799, 
as a new species of Siren. The latter, in shape, in size, and in the form and structure 
of the head and feet, is totally different from the animal described in this Paper, being 
much more analogous to the above mentioned larv®. 
