THE MANATEE 



(Manatus americanus) 



THE Cetaceans are not the only beasts which in their form and their 

 exclusively aquatic habits resemble the fish ; there is another perfectly 

 distinct order of which the same may be said, though in the Sirenia, 

 as these animals are called, the resemblance to fish is not carried so- 

 far. The Manatee, which we take as a type of this group a very 

 small one, by the way has no hind-limbs, any more than a Whale 

 or Porpoise, and the general form of its body is fish-like, though not 

 so much so as in those animals. Nor are the fore-limbs, though 

 they are more like fins than paws, so completely fin-like as in the 

 Cetaceans. They have some power of movement at the elbow and 

 wrist-joints, as well as at the shoulder, and, indeed, the very name 

 Manatee is derived from the Latin manus, a hand, through the 

 Spanish, owing to the habit the animal has of employing these flexible 

 flippers more or less as hands in managing its food and its young. 



The nostrils are at the end of the muzzle, not on the top of the 

 head, as in most Cetaceans, and the lips, which are very bristly, show 

 a cleft in the upper one, whose halves open and close, so as to grip 

 the leaves on which the creature feeds ; for, unlike the Cetaceans, the 

 Sirenians are essentially vegetarians. The eyes are small, as in the 

 Whale tribe ; and the Manatee resembles these also in having a mere 

 pin-hole for an ear. 



The body is practically naked, what hairs there are being very 

 minute, and ends in a broad, rounded shovel-shaped tail, set horizon- 

 tally like a Porpoise's, and no doubt for the same reason, the Manatee 

 being of course an air-breather, and needing to " blow " frequently. 

 There are no teeth in the front of the jaws, but a good set of grinders, 

 broad-crowned and ridged like those of hoofed animals, and utterly 

 unlike what are seen in Cetaceans. There are eleven on a side int 



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