312 Zoological Society : — 



the others in the same proportion that it does in Crocodilus. Its 

 attenuated snout, narrow jaws, and small teeth would seem to indi- 

 cate that it lives principally on fish. 



Thus while it offers some analogies with the Gavialidce, its true 

 affinities are undoubtedly with the Crocodilidce, though it may be 

 held to represent the former in the African and other rivers which 

 it inhabits. 



April 28, 1857.— John Gould, Esq., F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., in the Chair. 



Observations on the Species of the Genus Manatus. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., F.L.S., V.P.Z. &Ent. Soc. etc. 



Dr. Balfour Baikie having requested me to examine the skull of 

 the Manatee from Africa, which he described at a preceding meet- 

 ing, I am induced to send you the following observations. 



There appears to be considerable confusion respecting the nomen- 

 clature of the skulls of these animals. 



MM. Cuvier and De Blainville figure the skeleton and skull of the 

 American Manatee (31. austraUs) from the same specimen sent 

 from Cayenne in the Paris Museum. This animal differs essentially 

 from all the four skulls from the American coast which are in the 

 British IMuseum Collection, in the great elongation of the front 

 of the lower jaw, and the comparative length and narrowness of the 

 nasal opening. A copy of the front part of Cuvier' s figures is 

 given by Dr. Harlan as that of M. aynericanus. On the other hand, 

 the four skulls (two of which come from the West Indies and one 

 from Cuba) in the British iNIuseum all agree with the skull figured 

 by M. Cuvier as the Lamantin du Senegal*, and also with that 

 (which is probably from the same specimen as Cuvier' s in a more 

 imperfect state) which De Blainville figures under the name of M. 

 latirostris of Harlan, in the short rounded form of the front end 

 and the prominence of the gonyx on the imder side of the lower 

 jaw, and in the shortness and breadth of the nasal opening ; and 

 this appears to be different from the skull which De Blainville figured 

 under the name of 31. Senegalensis. The skeleton of a young female 

 specimen from Jamaica is figured by Sir Everard Home (Lectures, 

 iv. t. 54), and the head of this skeleton is copied under the name of 

 M. australis by Wagner (Saugeth. t. 381. f. 4), and the animal is 

 figured from a drawing by Mr. Gosse in the Figures of Animals 

 published by the Christian Knowledge Society, as the 3Ianati. 



The more adult of the Museum skulls exactly agree with Dr. 

 Harlan's figures of the skull on which he founded 31. latirostris 

 from the coast of East Florida. 



I am inclined to believe that all the skulls from America in the 

 British Museum, and that of a very young specimen in the same 

 Collection, belong to one species, though they vary considerably in 

 the height of the intermaxillary bones, in the comparative length 



* The front part of this figure is copied by Dr. Harlan for comparison with 

 that of his M. latirostris. 



