stu 
92 SIRENTA. 
Royal College of Surgeons agrees with African specimens in this respect ; and the same 
appears to be the case with two of the American skulls figured by de Blainville ek 
more constant character appears to be found in the condition of the anterior edge of the 
frontals, where they form the upper margin of the large nasal fossa; in the American 
Manatee this edge is straight, thin, and often denticulate, while in the African it is 
commonly thickened and rounded: but here, again, we find exceptions, for an African 
skull in the British Museum has frontals of the usual American type. On the whole 
it may be said that the skulls of American and African Manatees may usually, but not 
invariably, be separated, and that more information as to the rest of the organization of 
the latter form is required before its specific distinction can be regarded as proved. As 
to the supposed existence of two distinct species in America, it is enough to say that the 
minor cranial characters on which Harlan founded his WV. latirostris proved to be quite 
inconstant and untrustworthy. 
1. Manatus australis. (Tab. VII.) 
Trichechus manatus, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 49 (1766, part.) '. 
Trichechus manatus «. australis, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 60 (1780) ?. 
Manatus australis, Tilesius, Tiles. Jahrb. f. Naturg. i. p. 23 (1802, ex Gmelin)*; Ozeretskovski, Nov. 
Act. Petrop. xiii. p. 875 4. 
Manatus americanus, Desmarest, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. xvii. p. 262 (1817, ex Cuvier)*>; Frantzius, 
Arch. f, Naturg. xxxv. 1, p. 304% 
Manatus latirostris, Harlan, J. Acad. Philad. iii. p. 394 (1823, descr. orig.) ’. 
Vacca de Agua of Guatemalans. 
Hab. Norta America, coasts of the Gulf of Mexico.—MeExico, Yucatan (Dampier) ; 
British Honpuras (Salvin & Godman); Guatemaua, Lake of Yzabal (Salvin & 
Godman); Honpuras (Mus. Coll. Surg.) ; Nicaracua, Blewfields River (Dampier) ; 
Costa Rica, river Sarapiqui, San Juan ®&—Sovurn America, north and east coasts, 
southward to Brazil. 
The Manatee, or Sea-Cow, was naturally one of the first American Mammals to 
obtrude itself on the attention of the old voyagers. Professor Brandt, in the memoir 
already referred to, has drawn attention to the accounts of many of the earlier writers, 
both Spanish and English, who recorded its abundance and value as food. Of these, 
tne description of Captain Dampier is so vivid and exhaustive, that I quote it 
entire :— 
“‘ While we lay here [off the coast of Nicaragua], our Moskito Men went in their 
Canoa, and struck us some Manatee, or Sea-Cow. Besides this Blewfield’s River, I have 
seen of the Manatee in the Bay of Campeachy, on the Coasts of Bocca del Drago, and 
Bocco del Toro, in the River of Darien, and among the South Keys or little Islands of 
Cuba. I have heard of their being found on the North of Jamaica a few, and in 
the Rivers of Surinam in great Multitudes, which is a very low Land. I have seen 
* Ostéographie, Atlas, genus Manatus, pl. iii., under the names of M. latirostris? and M. australis. 
