146 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



both jaws, but as these work forward as in the case of the Elephant's 

 grinders, and are shed when worn out as fresh ones cut through 

 behind, in practice only about half that number are in view and in 

 use at once. 



The Manatee grows to about eight feet in length ; its home is the 

 coasts and estuaries of the warm parts of the eastern coasts of America. 

 On the opposite side of the Atlantic, on the West Coast of Africa, is 

 found another species (Manatus senegalensis\ and confined to the fresh 

 waters of the Amazon and Orinoco is a third (Manatus inunguis), but 

 all are very much alike. 



The Manatee is a slow, sluggish creature, very different from the 

 lively, active Porpoises and Dolphins. Its food consists of aquatic 

 plants, on which it browses by the aid of its bristly cleft upper lip as 

 above stated. It will feed on land herbage also when this is con- 

 veniently accessible from the water, but there seems no reason to 

 believe that it ever comes ashore to graze, as has sometimes been 

 stated. The probabilities are very much against such a performance, 

 since, from observations made on a specimen at our Zoological Gardens 

 years ago, the Manatee is very helpless and excessively uncomfortable 

 out of water. When lying on its chest it is especially ill at ease, but 

 obtains some relief by rolling over on its back, the fact being that its 

 weight compresses its chest and makes breathing difficult. 



It may here be mentioned that it is for this reason that stranded 

 Cetaceans cannot live very long, although air-breathers, the unfortunate 

 brutes, whose chests are built for expansion, being slowly choked by 

 their own weight. 



Owing to the sluggish mode of life and vegetarian habits of feeding 

 of the Manatee, it prefers quiet, shallow water; when not browsing it 

 rests under the surface, only coming up to blow every two or three 

 minutes ; but it can also float when the water is too deep for this 

 to be convenient. It has but one young one at a time, and this the 

 mother is said to hold under her fore-flipper, the teats being situated 

 just behind the arm-pits. 



The young animal has a couple of incisors in the upper jaw, but 



