CHAPTER IV. 



Genus I. — Lamantin; Manatus, C. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



The head is small and conical with a broad snout, 

 and rather small mouth; the eyes are placed high 

 up between the extremity of the snout and the open- 

 ings leading to the ears, which are very small and 

 hardly visible. The spine is composed of seven 

 very short cervical, seventeen dorsal, two lumbar, 

 and twenty-two caudal vertebrae The ribs are 

 seventeen in number. In addition to the shoulder 

 blade, arm and forearm, the lamantins have all the 

 wrist or carpal bones, with the single exception of 

 the pisiform, the phalanges of the thumb are wanting, 

 and the corresponding metacarpal bone terminates 

 in a point. All the other digits have three pha- 

 langes. The stomach has several cavities, the ccecum 

 two branches, and the colon is very large; in all 

 which circumstances they strongly resemble the 

 pachydermatous land animals, along with which 



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