306 



TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



not " canines," but " incisors " ; that is to say, they do 

 not answer to our " eye teeth," but to two of our " upper 

 cutting teeth," which are placed between our eye teeth. 

 The creature has some grinding teeth, but what is most 

 curious is the presence of a large, rough, horny plate 

 which clothes the front part of the palate, and another 

 similar plate which rubs against the former, and clothes 

 the front of the lower jaw. The reader may perhaps 

 recollect that in ruminants there is a small horny pad at 

 the front of the upper jaw, against which the teeth 

 of the lower jaw bite. This pad, however, is only a 



FIG. 79. 



THE MANATEE. 



mere rudiment of that 'we meet with in the dugong. 

 But, in our survey of the creatures noticed in this 

 article, we shall shortly describe a very much exagger- 

 ated structure of a more or less similar kind. 



The manatee is another " mermaid," and a cousin of 

 the dugong, which it closely resembles in general form. 

 It is a denizen of America, and even of the United 

 States, as it is found in Florida as well as in some of the 

 West Indian Islands, and in South America to 20 South 

 latitude. It ascends high up in the rivers of Brazil, and 

 is fovind on the west coast of tropical Africa and also in 

 its rivers, even as far into the interior as Lade Tchad. 



Its length does not appear to exceed eight feet. It 

 has, like the dugong, horny plates in the front of its jaws, 



