MANATID& 219 



drawn inwards by a backward movement of the lower margin of 

 the lip as a whole." The animal is thus enabled by the unaided 

 means of the upper lip to introduce food placed before it without 

 the assistance of the comparatively insignificant lower lip, the action 

 greatly recalling to the observer that of the mouth of the silkworm 

 and other caterpillars, in which the mandibles diverge and converge 

 laterally during mastication. When out of water the Manatee is 

 an extremely helpless animal ; and, although statements are fre- 

 quently met with in books of its voluntarily leaving the water for 

 the purpose of basking or feeding on shore, all trustworthy ob- 

 servations of those acquainted with it, either in a state of nature 



B 



FIG. 73. Front view of head of American Manatee, showing the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. 

 A, With the lobes of the upper lip divaricated ; B, with the lip contracted. From Murie, 

 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. xi. 



or in captivity, indicate that it has not the power of doing so. 

 None of the specimens in confinement have been observed to emit 

 any sound. 



Manatees, though much less numerous than formerly, are still 

 occasionally found in creeks, lagoons, and estuaries in some of the 

 West India Islands, and at various spots on the Atlantic coast of 

 America from Florida as far south as about 20 S. lat., and in the 

 great rivers of Brazil, almost as high as their sources. They are 

 also met with in similar situations on the opposite African coast, 

 from about 16 N. to 10 S. lat., and as far into the interior as 

 Lake Tchad. Their range may even extend, if native reports 

 obtained by Schweinfurth are correctly interpreted, to the river 

 Keebaly, 27 E. long. 



A considerable number of specific names have been applied to 

 the existing Manatees, but according to the researches of Dr. 

 Hartlaub l they may be reduced to three species, distinguished from 

 one another, among other features, by the characters of the skull, 

 and more especially the relations of the nasals to the adjacent 

 1 Zool. Jahrbuch, vol. i. p. 1 (1886). 



