The Faithful Sirenia 75 



who, from its appearance, wove their fabulae concerning 

 mermen and mermaids. Only, Hke all the whales, not 

 even excepting the Beluga, it has no voice. Any sound 

 it makes, or any whale makes, is due to the rushing of 

 the air through the spiracle or spouthole, and not to any 

 laryngeal exercise. The Manatee and Dugong, more- 

 over, have an aditional claim upon our notice, and a 

 proof of their close connexion with the higher land 

 intelligence, in that they have been tamed. 



The late lamented superintendent of the London 

 Zoological Gardens once trained, or, rather, took over 

 the training, of a young Manatee in Surinam, which 

 would come to him as he waded into its pond and permit 

 him to hold it in his knees while he gave it suck from a 

 feeding-bottle. And there is a record of one of these 

 strange anomalies being kept as a pet by a Spanish 

 South American governor for twenty-six years, during 

 which it behaved itself quite as sensibly as any ex- 

 clusively land animal could have done, even to the 

 extent of allowing the boys of the household to ride it 

 round its lake. 



After this, it is not surprising to learn that its 

 fondness for its young is as strong as that possessed by 

 any of the cetacea, not excepting the humpback, 

 although its power of defending its offspring is exceed- 

 ingly limited, for the Manatee has a tail like a beaver 

 and not at all like a whale, which member, though 

 useful enough to swim with, is of scarcely any value as 

 a weapon. 



Another marked feature of this strange animal's 

 life is its conjugal love. It has one mate, to which it 

 faithfully clings, nor will it leave its spouse even under 

 the extremest pressure of fear, preferring death to 

 separation. Thereby it is at once lifted on to a plane 

 in our estimation far above that of any other sea- 



