THE MERMAID. 41 



accepting Jack's introduction to his fish-tailed iiinamorata, 

 classed these three animals together as a sub-order of the 

 animal kingdom, and bestowed on them the name of the 

 Sirenia. This was, of course, in allusion to the Sirens of 

 classical mythology, who, in later art, were represented as 

 having the body of a woman above the waist, and that 

 of a fish below, although the lower portion of their body 

 was originally described as being in the form of a bird. 



It has been found difficult to determine to which order 

 these Majiatidcs are most nearly allied. In shape they most 

 closely resemble the whales and seals. But the cetacea 

 are all carnivorous, whereas the manatee and its relatives 

 live entirely on vegetable food. Although, therefore, Dr. 

 J. E. Gray, following Cuvier, classed them with the cetacea 

 in his British ]\Iuseum catalogue, other anatomists, as 

 Professor Agassiz, Professor Owen, and Dr. Murie, regard 

 their resemblance to the whales as rather superficial than 

 real, and conclude from their organisation and dentition 

 that they ought either to form a group apart or be classed 

 with the pachyderms — the hippopotamus, tapir, etc. — with 

 which they have the nearest affinities, and to which they 

 seem to have been more immediately linked by the now 

 lost genera, Dinotherinni and Halithcrinm. With the 

 opinion of those last-named authorities I entirely agree. I 

 regard the manatee as exhibiting a wonderful modification 

 and adaptation of the structure of a warm-blooded land 

 animal which enables it to pass its whole life in water, and 

 as a connecting link between the hippopotamus, elephant, 

 etc., on the one side, and the whales and seals on the other. 



The Halithermni was a Sirenian with which we are only 

 acquainted by its fossil remains found in the Miocene 

 formation of Central and Southern Europe. These indicate 

 that it had short hind limbs, and, consequently, approached 



