58 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



with of any value, is to be found in Dr. Murie's 

 paper, which I shall have occasion to refer to shortly. 

 It represents the young male which formed one of 

 the subjects of his paper, and which, through the 

 kindness of the Zoological Society, J am allowed to 

 reproduce in the accompanying woodcut. 



Of the habits of this species, Dampier gives an 

 interesting account ; he says it frequents creeks and 

 rivers near the sea where the water is shoal and the 

 shore low ; sometimes being found in fresh water, 

 sometimes in salt, but never far from the sea : its 

 food consists of marine vegetables, and its flesh is 

 excellent. " The tayl of a young cow is most 

 esteemed, but, if old, both head and tayl are very 

 tough : a calf that sucks is the most delicate meat." 

 The natives in Dampier's time (16S1) took great 

 numbers of Manatees by means of a sort of harpoon 

 lightly fixed in the end of a staff about 8 ft. long. 

 After paddling quietly within striking distance, the 

 harpoon was driven into the animal, and the staff 

 withdrawn, leaving the harpoon (to which was 

 attached a line 10 or 12 fathoms in length, termina- 

 ting with a float,) fast in its body. The Manatee on 

 being struck would swim away, but, impeded by the 

 float, was soon overtaken ; when quite exhausted by 

 its efforts to escape, they drew it to the side of the 

 canoe, and knocked it on the head ; then towing the 

 dead body to the shore, they made it fast, and 

 returned to seek and kill another. Having secured 

 a second Manatee, they towed it into shallow water 

 as near the shore as possible, and its weight being 

 too great to lift into the canoe, they " overset the 

 canoa, laying one side close to the Manatee ; then 

 they roll it in, which brings the canoa up right again, 

 and when they have heav'd out the water they 

 fasten a line to the other Manatee that lieth afloat, 

 and tow it after them. I have known two Moskito 

 men," he adds, " for a week every day bring aboard 

 two Manatees in this manner, the least of which 

 hath not weighed less than 600 pound, and that in 

 a very small canoa, that three Englishmen would 

 scarce venture to go in." When a cow, accompa- 

 nied by a young one, was struck, she generally took 

 the young one under one of her flippers ; but, if too 

 large, the young one never left her, so that in either 

 case it fell an easy prey. 



Dr. Cunningham, writing to the Secretary of 

 the Zoological Society, thus describes the habits 

 of the Manatee in confinement : — " The specimen 

 of the Manatee observed by me at Rio in 1S67 and 

 1869 had been procured, as I was informed, from the 

 Amazons, and was kept in a strip of artificial water 

 in the passao publico (public gardens) of the city, 

 which was tenanted also by two young jacares and 

 a variety of water-fowl. It measured as nearly as 

 I could calculate between 4 ft. and 5 ft. in length. 

 In general it could only be recognised as an inky 

 shadow moving along at some distance below the 

 surface of the water. It evinced a curious pre- 



dilection for the society of a white swan, following 

 this bird, which was not at all alarmed by'its asso- 

 ciate, from place to place, so that we found that the 

 presence of the swan on any particular spot on the 

 water was a guide to that of the Manatee, or Cow-fish, 

 as it is generally termed by the inhabitants of Rio. 

 It was very tame, often protruding its curiously- 

 fringed lips above the surface of the water to take 

 bunches of grass from the hands of bystanders ; 

 and several times I observed it grazing on the short 

 herbage at the sides of the water. This it accom- 

 plished by raising its head and shoulders above the 

 surface, and maintaining itself in this position by- 

 means of one pectoral fin placed on the top of the 

 low stone ledge or parapet which separated the 

 water from the adjoining turf, while it slowly moved 

 along sideways in this position cropping the grass 

 as it went." (P.Z.S., 1S70, p. 798.) 



In a paper read before the Zoological Society in 

 November, 1875, Professor Garrod, the prosector to 

 the society, calls attention to the prehensile power 

 possessed by the upper lip of the American Manatee. 

 On either side the upper lip is to be found an oval 

 prominence separated by a square interval, forming 

 the anterior portion of the lip. In life these pro- 

 minences, he says, "face inwards towards one 

 another, and when the animal is feeding it grasps 

 the food with them, by working them laterally 

 inwards, so that the piece of vegetable under mas- 

 tication is seized between them, and there held 

 firmly by the coarse bristles with which they are 

 covered. The pads diverge in relaxing." Mr. 

 Garrod likens this action to the lateral movement 

 of the mandibles of caterpillars whilst feeding on 

 leaves, and states that he has not observed a lateral 

 prehensile power of the upper lip resembling it in 

 any other mammalian. 



In 1866 an attempt was made to convey a young 

 female Manatee alive to this country ; it left Porto 

 Rico on the 1 2th March, but lived only ten days at 

 sea. In June of the same year, Herr A. Kappler, 

 of Surinam, having secured a young male, taken 

 in the Maroni river, a second attempt was made. 

 Under the charge of Mr. Clarence Bartlett, this 

 attempt proved all but successful; all went well 

 till within two days' sail of Southampton, when the 

 stranger suddenly succumbed to the chilling north- 

 east wind which set in. These two specimens, 

 which were carefully preserved, afforded the mate- 

 rials for Dr. Murie's splendid paper on the "Eorm 

 and Structure of the Manatee," published in the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1872 ; and 

 the result of the experience thus acquired as to the 

 best mode of conveyance, &c, led to the thin! 

 attempt proving successful. A half-grown female 

 Manatee, measuring 7 ft. 2 in., arrived safely at the 

 Zoological Gardens on the 6th of August last (1875). 

 It was sent from Pin Point, Demerara, by Mr. R. 

 Swain; the tank in which it was conveyed being 



