Zoological Society, 301 



of the Dolphin and other carnivorous Cetacea, which subsist by a per- 

 petual pursuit of living animals. In these the snout is conical, and 

 peculiarly elongated, and in some, as the Delphinus Gangeticus, the 

 jaws are produced to an extreme length, so as to give them every 

 advantage in seizing their swift and slippery prey ; whilst, in the 

 herbivorous Dugong, the snout is as remarkable for its obtuse, trun- 

 cate character ; — a form, however, which is equally advantageous to 

 it, and well adapted to its habits of browzing upon the alga and 

 fuci which grow upon the submarine rocks of the Indian seas. 



" As, from the fixed nature of the Dugong's food, the motions 

 of the animal during the time of feeding must relate more imme- 

 diately to the necessity of coming to the surface to respire, its tail, 

 the principal locomotive organ of ascent and descent, is propor- 

 tionally greater than in the true Cetacea, its breadth being rather 

 more than one -third the length of the whole body. 



" But the most important external differences are seen in the 

 presence of the membrana niciitans, in the anterior position of the 

 nostrils, and in the situation of the mammce, which are pectoral, or 

 rather axillary, being situated just behind the roots of the flippers; 

 in the female specimen examined their base was about the size of a 

 shilling, and they projected about half an inch from the surface. 



" A considerable ridge extends along the middle of the upper sur- 

 face of the posterior part of the back, which is continued upon and 

 terminates in the tail. 



" The mouth and tongue corresponded with the descriptions already 

 published of these remarkable structures. The opening of the larynx 

 is chiefly defended, during the submarine mastication of the vege- 

 table matters constituting the food of the Dugong, by the extreme 

 contraction of the faucial aperture, which resembles that of the Ca- 

 pybara. It is not traversed by a pyramidal larynx, as in the true 

 Cetacea. 



" The stomach of this singular animal presents, as Sir Everard 

 Home has justly observed, some of the peculiarities met with in the 

 Whale tribe, the Peccari and Hippopotamus, and the Beaver : like 

 the first, it is divided into distinct compartments ; like the second 

 and third, it has pouches superadded to and communicating with it ; 

 and, like the last, it is provided with a remarkable glandular ap- 

 paratus near the cardia. 



" To the left of the cardia there projects into the stomach a rounded 

 mammilloid eminence, whose base is 2 inches in diameter, and whose 

 apex presents an oblique crescentic orifice about 3 lines in diameter ; 

 on drawing aside the margins of this orifice, I found that, instead of its 



