CETACEA. 



CETACEA. 



914 



capture, but because their flesh was not so good as that of the smaller 

 and younger ones. 



The female Dugoug produces generally only one young at a birth, 

 and to this the mother bears such strong affection that, if the young 

 ia speared, the mother will not depart, but is sure to be taken also. 

 The Malays consider this animal as almost typical of maternal affection. 

 The young utter a short and sharp cry, and are said to shed tears, 

 which are carefully preserved by the common people as a charm, 

 under the notion that they will secure the affections of those whom 

 they love, as they attract the mother to the young Dugong. 



The flesh of the Dugong is delicate, and is said to be superior to 

 that of the Buffalo or common Ox. It is considered by the Malays 

 as a royal fish, and the king has a right to all that are taken. Sir 

 Stamford Raffles states that this species afforded much satisfaction on 

 the table, as the flesh proved to be most excellent beef. 



H. Tabernaculi, the Dugong of the Red Sea, is considered by 

 RUppell a distinct species. He gave it its specific name under the 

 impression that it was with the skin of this species that the Jews 

 were directed to veil the Tabernacle. He saw it swimming among 

 the coral banks on the Abyssinian coast near the Dalac Islands. The 

 fishermen harpooned a female, which he dissected, 10 feet long. The 

 Arabs stated that they live in pairs or small families, that they have 

 feeble voices, feed on A ly<e, and that in February and March bloody 

 battles occur between the males, which attain the length of 18 feet. 

 The female brings forth in November and December. The flesh, 

 teeth, and skin are esteemed by the Arabs. 



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Dugong (Ilalicore Dugong). 



H. utatralii. It is a native of the north-west coast of Australia. 

 It is the Manate of Dampier and the Whale- Tailed Manate of Pennant. 

 Two upper jaws and three skulls of this species are in the British 

 Museum. 



Rytina. giyai, the Morskaia Korova. It is the Manate, or Vacca 

 marina, Tricheckus Manatus of Miiller ; Rytina Stelleri of Illiger ; 

 Stdlerut boreala of Desmarest ; the Whale-Tailed Manate of Pennant. 

 It is a native of the Arctic Ocean Behring's Straits. The Sea-Ape of 

 Pennant, Trickechm Hydropithecua of Shaw, Manatta Simia of Illiger, 

 Dr. Gray suggests may belong to this family, if it is not a Seal. 



Fossil Cetacea. 



The fossil remains of Cetacea have hitherto been found in the 

 Tertiary Formations only. Bones from the Portland Stone which 

 were at first thought to belong to whales proved to belong to 

 the genus Cetiotaurut (Owen), the most gigantic of all the fossil rep- 

 tiles. {Owen, ' Report on British Fossil Ucptiles ' in ' Trans. Brit. 

 Ass.' 1841.) Dr. Buckland, in his 'Bridgewater Treatise,' remarks 

 that the seas of the Miocene and Pliocene periods were inhabited by 

 marine Mammalia, consisting of Whales, Dolphins, Seals, Walrus, and 

 the Lamantin or Manatee, whose existing species are chiefly found 

 near the coasts and mouths of rivers in the torrid zone. 



Afanatitlce. Cuvier figures and describes the remains of a Manatee 

 differing from the existing species. Specimens were collected from 

 various parts of France, and he states it to be very certain that an 

 animal of the genus Manatm, a genus now peculiar to the torrid zone, 

 inhabited the ancient sea which has covered Europe with its shells, at 

 an epoch posterior to the formation of the chalk, but anterior to that 

 when the gypsum was deposited and the PaUeolherimm with its con- 

 temporary genera lived on the soil of France. (' Oss. FOBS.') 



Delphinidce. Cuvier notices and figures, with an accurate descrip- 

 tion, the remains of a fossil Dolphin, approaching the Grampus and 

 /''//i/imtM ylobiceps, from Lombardy, the skeleton of which was found 

 nearly entire by M. Cortesi ; and another with a very long symphy.si.t 

 of the lower jaw from the department of Landes. Also a fossil 

 Dolphin closely approximating the common Dolphin from the same 

 locality, and another from the Calcaire Grassier of the department of 

 Orne. ('Oss. FOBS.') 



M. von Meyer refers to these and another (Grateloup, ' Ann. Ge'ner. 

 d. Sc. Phys.' iiL, s. 58, t. 36 ; Taylor, ' Magazine of Nat. Hist.' March, 

 1830, s. 262), giving the following names : Delphinus Corterii, 

 D. macrogenivt, I), longirostrit. (' Palieologica.') 



Monodon. Cuvier collects notices of fossil fragments of the Narwhal 

 from Parkinson and Georgi. He adds that he himself saw a broken 



NAT. HIST. Div. VOL. i. 



piece of a tusk in the Cabinet of Natural History of Lyons which had 

 formerly been in that of Pestalozzi. ('Oss. Foss.') Remains of the 

 M. monoceros have been found in the neighbourhood of London and 

 in other parts of England. (Owen, ' Brit. Foss. Mam.') 



Ziphius. Cuvier founded this genus, which approximates the 

 Cachalots and Hyperoodons, on crania discovered on the coast of 

 Provence, and disinterred in excavating the docks at Antwerp, and 

 on a fragment in the Paris Museum. On these materials he rests 

 three species, namely Ziphiut carirostris, Z. planirostris, and 

 Z. langirostris, the remains of which he figures and describes. 

 (' Oss. Foss.') 



Zeuylodon. This name was given by Professor Owen to the Saeilo- 

 saums of Dr. Harlau. It was at first regarded as a reptile by its 

 discoverer, but Professor Owen found that the microscopic characters 

 of the texture of the teeth were strictly of a mammiferous character, 

 and the nature of their investing substance limited the comparison of 

 them with those of the few mammals in which the teeth are devoid 

 of enamel. Among these are the Edentata, including the Megatherium 

 and its congeners, the Morse, the Dugong, and the Cachalot. It is to 

 the teeth of the Cachalot and Dugong that those of the so-called 

 Basilosaur offer the nearest resemblance ; and Professor Owen conceives 

 that its position in the natural system was in the cetaceous order, 

 intermediate between the Cachalot and the herbivorous species. 

 In a paper read before the Geological Society of London, Professor 

 Owen says, " The teeth, in their combination of an exaggerated con- 

 dition of the conjugate form which is but indicated in certain teeth 

 of the Dugong, with two distinct fangs, in their oblique position in 

 the jaw, and the irregular interspaces of their alveoli, present very 

 striking peculiarities ; and when to these dental characters we add 

 the remarkable and abrupt contraction of the distal end of the 

 humerus, which is nevertheless provided with an articulating surface 

 for a ginglymoid joint, and its remarkably diminutive size a cetaceous 

 character, which likewise is here carried to an extreme, and when 

 we also consider the dense laminated structure of the ribs, and the 

 third exaggeration of a cetaceous structure in the extreme elongation 

 of the body of the caudal vertebra?, we cannot hesitate in pronouncing 

 the colossal Zeuglodon to have been one of the most extraordinary of 

 the Mammalia which the revolutions of the globe have blotted out of 

 the number of existing beings." 



Teeth of Zeuglodon. 



a, Portion of upper jaw, containing three teeth, very much reduced j 

 It, section of tooth. 



In the ' American Journal of Science' for April, 1843, is a ' Notice 

 of the Discovery of a nearly complete Skeleton of the Zygodon 

 (Zeuylodon) of Owen (JJcmilosauru-s of Harlan) in Alabama,' by S. B. 

 Buckley, A.M. 



The entire length of the skeleton, including the head, is described 

 as nearly 70 feet, and was imbedded " in u marly limestone soil" on 

 the plantation of Judge Creagh, the same gentleman who had 

 forwarded the bones to Dr. Harlan. This discovery entirely corrobo- 

 rates the conclusions to which Professor Owen came in the memoir 

 above quoted. Bones of this gigantic fossil Cetacean have been also 

 found near the Washita River in Louisiana, and have been seen in 

 Washington County, Mississippi : from thence, Mr. Buckley adds, they 

 have been found in several places as far east as C'laiborne, on the 

 Alabama River. The skeleton is now at New York. 



Balamidce. Balcenoptera. Cuvier figures and describes the skeleton 

 of a fossil whale, which he considers to have been a sub-genus of 



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