528 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Order SIRENIA: Sea-cows 



The sea-cows are completely aquatic in habit and somewhat 

 fishlike in external form. They are thought to be distant rela- 

 tives of the elephants. Three Recent families are recognized, 

 each with a single genus: 



(1) Dugongidae, the dugong. This sirenian occurs in the 

 Red Sea, along the coasts of East Africa, Ceylon, the islands 

 of the Indian Ocean, the Malayan Archipelago, the Philippines, 

 and northern Australia. It is in need of protection. 



(2) Hydrodamalidae, Steller's sea-cow. The single species 

 had no teeth and was restricted to two small islands in the 

 northern Pacific. It was exterminated by the Russian hunters. 



(3) Trichechidae, the manatees. Three species (the Florida 

 manatee is considered a race of the West Indian species) are 

 still extant. Manatees occur in tropical and subtropical 

 America and the west coast of Africa. J. E. H. 



Family DUGONGIDAE: Dugongs 



DUGONG 

 DUGONG DUGON (P. L. S. Miiller) 



Trichecus dugon P. L. S. Miiller, Linnaeus's Vollstandigen Nairn-systems, Suppl., p. 21, 

 1776 (Cape of Good Hope to Philippines). 



SYNONYMS: Halicore hemprichii Ehrenberg, in Hemprich and Ehrenberg, Symbolae 

 Physicae, Mamm., dec. 2, folio k, footnote, 1832 (Barkan Island, Red Sea); 

 Halicore lottum Hemprich and Ehrenberg, Symbolae Physicae, Mamm., dec. 2, 

 folio k, footnote, 1832 (Hauakel Island, Red Sea); Halicore tabernaculi Riippell, 

 Mus. Senckenbergianum, vol. 1, p. 113, pi. 6, 1834 (Red Sea); Halicore indicus 

 Desmarest, Encycl. Meth., Mammalogie, pt. 2, p. 509, 1822. 



AUSTRALIAN DUGONG 

 DUGONG AUSTRALIS (Owen) 



Halicore australis Owen, in Jukes' Narr. Voyage Fly, vol. 2, p. 323, 1847 (Endeavour 



Strait, North Australia). 

 FIGS.: Prater, 1928, pis. 1-4; Dollman, 1933, figs. 1-6 (exterior and skull). 



The dugong is found in warm tropical and subtropical coastal 

 waters from eastern Africa to the Philippines and Formosa, as 

 well as southward to the east coast of Australia, and eastward 

 again to the Solomon Islands. Although separate names have 

 been given to those from the Red Sea and from Australian 



