MANATEES AND DUGONGS 1157 



Although the manatees and dugongs never leave the water, and are 

 as well adapted for an aquatic life as Cetaceans, yet they cannot swim 

 in the rapid manner characteristic of many of the latter, and are never found 

 inhabiting the open sea. On the contrary they frequent shallow seas and bays, 

 lagoons, estuaries, and large rivers. As regards their food, these animals are 

 entirely herbivorous; browsing upon seaweeds or other aquatic plants growing be- 

 neath the surface of the water. They are slow and sluggish in their movements, 

 while in disposition they are harmless and inoffensive, and appear to be endowed 

 with but a comparatively-small amount of intelligence. 



Both dugongs and manatees produce but a single offspring at a birth, which is 

 attended with assiduous care by its parent. When suckling, the females raise their 

 heads and breasts above the water, and exhibit the young clinging to them, and 

 partially supported by their flippers, and there can be little doubt but that this habit 

 has given origin to the legendary mermaid. In describing the dugong, Sir Emerson 

 Tennent wrote as follows concerning this point: "The rude approach to the human 

 outline observed in the shape of the head of this creature, and the attitude of the 

 mother when suckling her young, clasping it to her breast with one flipper, while 

 swimming with the other, holding the heads of both above water; and when dis- 

 turbed, suddenly diving and displaying her fish-like tail, these, together with her 

 habitual demonstrations of strong maternal affection, probably gave rise to the fable 

 of the mermaid; and thus that earliest invention of mythical physiology may be 

 traced to the Arab seamen and the Greeks, who had watched the movements of the 

 dugong in the waters of Manaar. Megasthenes records the existence of a creature 

 in the ocean near Taprobane [Ceylon], with the aspect of a woman; and ^lian, 

 adopting and enlarging upon his information, peoples the seas of Ceylon with fishes 

 having the heads of lions, panthers, and rams, and, stranger still, Cetaceans in the 

 form of satyrs. Statements such as these must have had their origin in the hairs 

 which are set round the mouth of the dugong, somewhat resembling a beard, which 

 ^Elian and Megasthenes both particularize from their resemblance to the hair of a 

 woman." The belief in the existence of mermaids was firmly credited by the early 

 Portuguese and Dutch voyagers to the East. 



Distribution ^ e living members of the order, which generally associate in small 

 herds, frequent the coasts and larger rivers on both sides of the Atlantic, 

 and also those of the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, parts of the Bay of Bengal, and 

 Australia. The northern sea-cow was, however, an inhabitant of the cold regions 

 of Behring Sea; and during the Tertiary period Sirenians were distributed over the 

 greater part of the globe. The group is, therefore, evidently a waning one. From 

 their herbivorous habits and the structure of their molar teeth the suggestion natu- 

 rally arises that the Sirenians are connected with the Ungulates; and the resemblances 

 of their teeth are nearer to the Even-Toed than to the Odd-Toed section of that order. 

 The retention of five toes by the Sirenians seems, however, to indicate that if they 

 are really connected with the Ungulates, they must have diverged from that group 

 at a very early period of its existence. 



It has been very generally considered that each of the three genera of 

 Sirenians that have existed during the historic period is entitled to constitute 



