90 CARNIVORA.—SIRENIA. 
live where there is Plenty of Fish”*; and he further informs us that these islands were 
visited by English ships from Jamaica for the purpose of obtaining “Seal-Oyl” 7. I 
have been unable to find any modern record of the capture of Seals on the east coast of 
Central America, or to trace any specimens in the European Museums. The most 
likely species to occur would be the West-Indian forms named Phoca tropicalis}, and 
Cystophora antillarum§ by Gray—animals of which nothing is known beyond the 
imperfect type specimens in the British Museum, and the field-notes of Mr. Hill, quoted 
by Mr. Gosse |]. 
Nor can I find evidence of the occurrence on the Pacific coast of Central America of 
any of the Seals or Sea-Lions of that ocean, although the southern Otaria jubata 
(Foster) extends its range up the western seaboard of South America to Peru, while the 
northern O. stelleri (Lesson), 0. gilliespit (M*Bain), and Arctocephalus ursinus (Linn.) 
are all found on the coasts of California, as is also the Elephant-Seal, Macrorhinus 
leoninus (Linn.)§. This distribution may possibly be caused, as suggested to me by Mr. 
H. Saunders, by the fact that Humboldt’s Current and the North-Pacific Drift-Current 
lower the ocean temperature along the coasts of South and North America, but sweep 
out to the westward when they reach Peru and California respectively, leaving a 
greatly warmer interval between these shores; and another reason may be the general 
absence of islands along this coast. 
Order V. SIRENTA. 
Few Mammals have excited more general interest than the little group which con- 
sists of the Manatee, the Dugong, the now extinct Rhytina, and their fossil allies. The 
peculiar habits and appearance of the recent species (lately rendered familiar in Kurope — 
and America by the exhibition of living specimens in confinement) have always attracted 
the interest of the general public; while the combination of divergent and abnormal 
characters in their organization rendered them long a standing puzzle to the systematic 
zoologist. ‘Thus Linneus associated them with the Walrus, Cuvier with the Whales, 
and de Blainville with the Elephants; and it was only when their anatomy had been 
more fully worked out ** that naturalists generally recognized their claims to be regarded 
* Dampier’s Voyages, ii. pt. 2, p. 25. + Tom. cit. p. 27. 
+ Cat. Mamm. Brit. Mus. pt. 2 (Seals), p. 28 (1850, descr. orig.) ; Monachus tropicalis, Cat. Seals and 
Whales Brit. Mus. p. 20. 
§ P. Z. S. 1849, p. 93 (deser. orig.); Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (2nd ser.) vi. p. 60; Cat. Seals and Whales, 
p. 43. 
|| ‘ Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica,’ pp. 807-314. 
{| Cf. Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Berl. 1877, pp. 505-507; Scammon, Marine Mamm. N. Amer. pp. 113-137. 
** Of the principal exponents of the structure of the Sirenia, the names of Bischoff, Knox, Owen, Brandt, 
Vrolik, Krauss, Murie, Garrod, Chapman, and Harting may be mentioned: references to the memoirs specially 
treating of Manatus will be found below. 
