114 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



C. THE SIRENIANS OH SEA-COWS. 

 / 



By FREDERICK W. TRUE. 

 31. THE AMERICAN MANATEES. 



SPECIES OP NORTH AMERICAN MANATEES. The numerous zoologists and travelers who 

 have written npou the American Manatees are not agreed as regards the number of existing species. 

 In the many and oftentimes discordant descriptions and observations extant, some see but the 

 variations of a single species ; ' others discern two species, 2 one of Florida, the other of South and 

 Central America; and others still are able to distinguish three species, one, as before, in Florida, 

 but two in South America, a marine and a fluviatile species. I have satisfied myself by examina- 

 tion of specimens in the National Museum that there are at least two species, and that both occur 

 within the borders of the United States. Regarding the Manatee of the upper water-courses of 

 South America I am still in doubt. In the following pages I shall refer to the southern form, 

 Trichechus manatus, Liun6, as the South American Manatee, and to the Floridan form, Trichechux 

 latirostrifi, (Harlan) True, as the Florida Manatee. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE FLORIDA MANATEE. We have, then, upon our coasts two representa- 

 tives of the Sirenians. The Florida Manatee, the lea.-t widely spread species, apparently inhabits 

 only the Floridan Peninsula and the eastern Gulf States. Regarding its distribution Mr. Silas 

 Stearns of Pensacola, Fla., contributes the following notes: 



"It is generally supposed in Florida and the Gulf State* that there are very few Manatees in 

 existence in this country, and that these are to be found in the southern portion of the Florida 

 Peninsula, in the fresh water rivers, both on the Atlantic and Gulf sides. I have heard of their 

 being taken or seen in the Myakka River, Peace Creek, Caloosahatchie River, and other small 

 streams south of Charlotte Harbor and Okeechobee Lake, on the Gulf side, and in the Sainte Luc.io 

 River on the Atlantic side. 



"On the Gulf coast (where I am better acquainted) the oldest settlers say that ten, fifteen, or 

 twenty years ago Manatees were occasionally seen in nearly all the inland waters from Key West 

 westward to civilization at Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans. It is evident that they have 

 been abundant along the entire Gulf coast, and probably on the Atlantic as far north as the 

 Carolinas, for their bones can be found along the shore nearly everywhere that civilization 

 has not reached. 



"Those generally found in the salt water along sand-beaches are petrified and black. I have 

 reason to think that there are still scattering individuals all through Florida, for during the 

 summer of 1880 I saw one in Santa Rosa Sound, some twenty miles east of Pensacola, where there 

 has been none seen for many years. While landing a sail-boat on the island we surprised the 

 animal in shoal water and had a fine opportunity to examine it as it swam by into deeper water. 

 As they are so shy, there may be many more existing in the State than we are aware of, and their 

 range may include the whole State of Florida." 



Mr. Goode informs me that specimens could be taken from time to time in the year 1878 near 

 Saiiite Lucie on Indian River. 



'GRAY: Cat. Seals aud Wbalrn, Brit. Museum, 1866, p. 358, and others. (Manatiw aimtralis.) 

 "HARI.AN : Journal Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, first series, iii, 1824, pp. 390-394. 



