364 MANATID^. 



the females. They are often more than 20 feet long. They live 

 upon a green grass which grows upon the bank. 



Peron observes, the sailors were alarmed by a terrific howling, 

 which resembled the roaring of a bull, but much stronger, and seemed 

 to come from the neighboming reeds. And Mr. Fraser, in Captain 

 Stirling's Surveying Voyage, 1826, notices that while attending to 

 the boat on the river, he " distinctly heard the beUowiiig of some 

 huge animal, similar to that of an ox, from an extensive marsh 

 further up the river." The roars were doubtless from the Dugong. 



Dampier obsei-ved these animals in Australia, but he mistook 

 them for Hippojwtami ; but he only saw a head, half decomposed by 

 digestion, and the tusk doubtless helped to mislead him. 



Peron mentions the existence of a Dugon on the Australian coast 

 in his ' Voyage of Discovery to Australia,' published in 1807, but he 

 only saw a few teeth collected by the sailors from a half-decomposed 

 specimen. 



The late Dr. Eobert Tyler presented a skuU and some other bones 

 to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. In 1827 he read 

 a paper on the Dugong or Dayoumy, on the bones of four different 

 individuals which he had picked up at Raffles Bay on the north coast 

 of Australia. (See Mem. of Dr. 11. Tyler, Corbyn's Indian Rev. 1838, 

 iii. p. 46, and Blyth, Report Asiatic Soc. 14.) 



Known to the colonists in Morton Bay as the " Sea-pig." The 

 skin is thick and smooth, with a few hairs scattered on the surface. 

 Bluish on the back, with a white breast and beUy. The adult male 

 does not exceed 18 or 20 feet long. It chiefly feeds on marine 

 vegetables which it finds at the bottom of the inlets m comparatively 

 shallow water, where it is easily captured. The flesh resembles 

 good beef, and is much esteemed. The oil obtained fi'om its fat is 

 peculiarly clear and limpid, and free from any disagreeable smell 

 found in most animal oils. The blacks devour the carcase roasted, 

 after expressing the oil for sale to the colonists. — Abridged from 

 Sklneg's Three Colonies of Australia, 1852, 337. 



The author of - Ramble at the Antipodes,' 1859, described the 

 flesh of the Dugong, or Yangan of the aborigines, as excellent, 

 having the taste of tender beef, and, when salted, nearly resembling 

 bacon. 



The Australian Dugong is met ydth. on the north coast of that 

 island continent within the Great Burrow Reef at Swan River on the 

 western side, at Moreton Bay on the eastern, and in Port Essington 

 and Shasta Bay on the north coast. But it may be doubtful if they 

 are all the same species. Professor Owen's H. anstralis is described 

 from the animal found in Port Essington (see Cat. Osteol. Series 

 Mus. CoU. Sui'geons). 



2. Halicore Tabernacnli. 



" Tachas vel Thachiisa, 3Iuscs, in Kiodiis, xxv. 5," Riippell. 

 Halicore tabernaculi, BUpju'll, Mus. Scnckmib. i. Il3. t. 6. 

 II. Dugong, var., Meichb. Si/n. Mamm. 16. 



