594 



398. Halicore dngong. The Dugong or Duyong. 



ii, pi. xxiii ; myth, J. A. 8. S. xxviu, pp. Vi 1, 4S3, 494 ; id. Cat 

 p. 143 ; id. Mam. Birds Surma, p. 53 ; Jerdon, Mam. p. 311 

 W. Sclater, Cat. p. 326. 

 Halicore indicus, Desm. Mam. p. 509; Cantor, J. A. S. B, xv,p. 274 ; 



Kelaart, Prod. p. 89. 

 Talla mala, Muda ura, Cing. ; Duyong, Parampuan laut, Malay. 



Colour either bluish grey throughout or the lower parts whitish 

 or white. 



Dimensions. Extreme length of adults 8 to 9 feet, usually 5 to 7 ; 

 much larger dimensions are given in books, but are open to doubt. 



Fig. 196. Halicore dugong. 



In a large specimen 8 ft. 6 in. long and G ft. in circumference, the 

 pectoral fins were 16 inches long and 8 inches broad, and the breadth 

 of the tail from tip to tip 31. The skull of a male from Ceylon 

 measures 14/5 inches in basal length and 8-5 in breadth. 



Distribution. The shores of the Indian Ocean from E. Africa to 

 Australia for about 15 degrees on each side of the Equator. 

 Dugongs have been observed on the coast of Malabar, the north- 

 west coast of Ceylon from the Gulf of Calpentyn to Adam's Bridge, 

 around the Andaman Islands, and in the Mergui Archipelago. 



Habits. Formerly dugongs were said to be found in large herds 

 of some hundreds of individuals, and to be in places so tame as to 

 allow themselves to be handled. As their flesh is by all accounts 

 excellent and their fat yields a clear limpid oil of great value, they 

 have everywhere been hunted and are now in most places rare. 

 They are said to be slow in their movements and unintelligent. 

 Their food consists of marine algae. They haunt shallow bays, 

 salt-water inlets, and mouths of estuaries, but do not, like the 

 Manati, ascend rivers. The female gives birth to but one young 

 at a time, and is said to hold it with her pectoral fin. Some writers 

 have suggested that the dugong has given rise to the myth of the 

 mermaid (hence, indeed, the name Halicore) but it should be re- 

 membered that stories of beings half man or woman, half fish, are 

 as common in temperate as in tropical seas, and that some of them 

 are more ancient than any European knowledge of the dugong. 



