248 SIREN. 
pestilential fever of the very worst kind. Lat. 14, 4. 35. N. 
Long. 38. 0. 15. E. 
SIRE, s. [sire, Fr.; senior, Lat.] The word of respect 
in addressing the king.—A father. Used in ‘poetry. 
He, but a duke, would have his son a king, 
And raise his issue like a loving sire. Shakspeare. 
Whether his hoary sire he spies, 
While thousand grateful thoughts arise. 
Or meets his spouse’s fonder eye. Pope. 
It is used in common speech of beasts: as, the horse had a 
good sire, but a bad dam.—It is used in composition: as, 
grand-«>e, great-grand-«re. 
To SIRE, v. a. To beget; to produce.—Cowards father 
cowards, and base thing sire the base. Shakspeare. 
SI'REN, s. [Latin. Bochart calls it a Phoenician word, 
meaning a songstress. So the Heb. syer, a song.] A god¬ 
dess who enticed men by singing, and devoured them; any 
mischievous alluring women. 
Oil train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note, 
To drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears: 
Sing, siren, to thyself, and I will dote; 
Spread o’er the silver waves thy golden hair. 
And as a bed I’ll take thee, and there lie. Shakspeare. 
SI'REN, adj. Alluring ; bewitching like a siren.—By 
the fair insinuating carriage, by the help of the winning ad¬ 
dress, the syren mode of mien, he can inspire poison, whisper 
in destruction to the soul. Hammond. —Lulled with syren 
song. Young. 
SIREN, in Natural History, a genus of the class Amphibia, 
order Reptilia, of which the Generic Character is: body two- 
footed, tailed, naked j the feet are placed in the manner of 
arms, and furnished with claws. There is only a single 
species mentioned by Gmelin, but Dr. Shaw notices three 
species:— 
1. Siren lacertina.—Body eel-shaped; branches ramified. 
This species stands eminently distinguished in the list of 
animals, by the ambiguity of its characters, which are such 
as to induce the great Linnaeus to institute it for a new 
order of Amphibia, under the title of Meantes. The 
genus with which the siren has the nearest affinity is the 
lacerta, or lizard, which see. It resembles the larva, or 
first state of a lacerta ; and it is even still doubtful whether 
it may not really be such: yet it has never been observed in 
any other state, having two feet only, without any appear¬ 
ance of a hind pair. The feet are also furnished with claws, 
whereas the larvae of the lacerta? are observed to be without 
claws ; the mouth has several rows of small teeth ; the body 
is eel-shaped, but slightly flattened beneath, marked on the 
sides by several wrinkles, and slightly compressed towards 
the extremity of the tail, which is edged with a kind of soft 
skin, or adipose fin ; on each side the neck are three ramified 
branchial processes, resembling, but on a larger scale, those 
belonging to the larvae of water-newts, and at the base are 
the openings into the gills; the eyes are very small, and 
blue. The general colour of the animal is a deep or blackish- 
brown, scattered over, especially on the sides, with nu¬ 
merous minute whitish specks. It is frequently found of 
the length of two feet, or even more. It is a native of 
North America, and more particularly of South Carolina, 
where it is not uncommon in muddy and swampy places, 
living generally under water, but sometimes appearing on 
dry land. It has a kind of squeaking or singing voice; 
hence it was distinguished by the name of siren. This 
curious animal was first discovered and described by Dr. 
Garden, who resided many years in Carolina, and who gave 
the utmost attention to the science of natural history, which 
he enriched by many highly interesting observations, and by 
the discovery of many new facts. The doctor communi¬ 
cated specimens of the siren to Linnaeus, with particulars 
relative to its history and manners. The great Swedish na¬ 
turalist, in h s letter to Dr. Garden on this subject, declares 
that nothing had ever exercised his thoughts so much, nor 
was there any thing he so much desired to know, as the real 
nature of so extraordinary an animal. Mr. Hunter has 
given an anatomical description of the siren in the 56th vol. 
of the Philosophical Transactions, to which the reader is 
referred. 
The siren, if thrown on the ground with any degree of 
violence, wfil sometimes break in two or three pieces; and 
in this particular it resembles the Anguis fragilis, or slow- 
worm. It may also be observed, that though in some re¬ 
spects it resembles the larva of the lizard, yet no lizard, of 
which it may be supposed the larva, has ever yet been disco¬ 
vered in those parts of Carolina where it is most frequent. 
The species to which it seems most allied is the lacerta teguin 
of Linnaeus, which is a native of South America. 
2. Siren anguine, or four-footed siren.—With eel-shaped- 
body, and ramified branchiae. This has been denominated 
the Proteus anguinus by some naturalists, and by others the 
Austrian siren. This animal is found iu a very singular situa¬ 
tion, being an inhabitant of the celebrated romantic lake 
Zirknitz, in the duchy of Carniola, in Austria. From this 
lake the water regularly retires during the summer, by nume¬ 
rous subterraneous outlets at the bottom ; leaving the ground 
dry, and fit for pasture, as well as for various kinds of 
hunting, and other amusements: but in the month of Octo¬ 
ber it again returns with great force, springing out of the 
passages before mentioned, from a vast depth, till the lake 
is completely filled. It is situated in a valley, surrounded 
by rocky and woody mountains, in which are vast caverns, 
and it is principally supplied by eight rivulets running into 
it from the adjoining mountainous region. See Phil. Trans. 
vol. xvi. 
This species of siren is extremely rare, and is found in the 
spring, and towards the decline of summer, in some parti - 
cular parts of the above-mentioned lake, and measures from 
ten to twelve or thirteen inches in length, and about three 
quarters of an inch in diameter. It is entirely of a pale rose- 
colour, or even nearly white, except the three pair of ramified 
branchial fins on each side the neck, which are of a bright 
red or carmine colour. Its general shape is that of an eel; 
the body being cylindrical till towards the end of the tail, 
where it becomes flat, and is attenuated, both above and be¬ 
low, into a kind of fatty fin, scarcely distinguishable from the 
rest of the tail; the skin is very smooth and even ; the head 
is of a somewhat depressed form, with a lengthened obtuse, 
and widish snout, and it has no external eyes; the mouth is 
moderately wide, and furnished with a row of very minute 
teeth; the legs are three quarters of an inch long, and the 
feet of the fore-legs are furnished with three toes, without 
claws; the feet of the hind-legs have only two toes. The 
motions of this animal, when taken out of the water, are in 
general extremely slow and languid; as is also the case, 
when kept in a vessel of water; but in its native lake, it is 
sometimes observed to swim briskly, waving its body in a 
serpentine direction, not unlike that of a leech. The Anguine 
siren is figured and very accurately described by Laurenti, in 
his work entitled “ Specimen Medicum, exhibens Synopsin 
Reptilium.” The real nature of the animal is not completely 
ascertained; some imagining it to be the larva of some spe¬ 
cies of lizard, while others contend that it is a perfect animal 
sui generis. It is evidently of a predacious nature, feeding 
on the smaller kind of aquatic animals ; since one of them, 
which was kept alive in a vessel of water, was observed to 
discharge from its stomach several small shells of the genus 
Helix; and in the stomach of one, which was dissected, 
were found the head and bones of a small fish. Its voice is 
a strong hiss, much louder than might be expected from the 
size of the animal. 
Dr. Schreibers, who has most diligently investigated the 
nature and anatomy of this animal, says, “ there can be no 
doubt that it bears a great affinity to the siren lacertina, having 
both gills and lungs; and therefore it leaves us in equal un¬ 
certainty as to its being a perfect animal in itself, or the larva 
of another animal. It is, however, remarkable that notwith¬ 
standing the most careful researches during many years, and 
the frequent fishing which takes place in the lakes and caverns 
of the neighbouring country, at all seasons of the year, no 
animal 
