530 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



that according to native report it is still fairly common, and 

 one was brought to him there in 1934; but although the meat 

 has a high commercial value, its captors refused to let him 

 have the skull for $2.50! 



Anderson and De Winton (1902), quoting a paper by Krauss, 

 of 1870, on specimens collected by Klunzinger at Kosseir near 

 the head of the Red Sea, speak of the dugong as then "appar- 

 ently plentiful," going in small groups of two to ten. They 

 appeared annually on the Nubian coast, especially near Aesa, 

 and in December and January moved northward at least to 

 the island of Safadje. They are little seen by day but appear 

 to be more active, probably feeding inshore, by night. The 

 single young one is born in winter, and the period of gestation 

 seems to be about a year. Maj. S. S. Flower, writing in 1932, 

 says that it is "now rare on the [Red Sea] coast of Egypt," 

 seldom coming farther north than latitude 25 N., but to the 

 southward it was not uncommon. The Arab fishermen prize 

 the teeth highly. De Beaux (1931) writes that it is captured 

 off Raheita, southeast of Assab, more frequently than else- 

 where in the nets of the fishermen ; the meat is said to be tender 

 and well flavored and is much esteemed locally. He strongly 

 urges its protection in the Red Sea and Somali coastal waters. 

 It is an interesting fact that since the opening of the Suez 

 Canal a female of this species was reported by Aharoni (1930, p. 

 330) as having been killed by fishermen from Tantura, about 

 halfway up on the coast of Palestine, in a shore cave; but the 

 possibility of this having been a monk seal should not be 

 overlooked. 



Passing eastward, Blanford (1876) writes that although re- 

 ported by Murray as occurring on the Persian coast, he knew 

 of no certain record of its presence on the west coast of India 

 farther north than Canara, nor did he know of it from any 

 part of the Arabian coast east of Aden. It is, however, still 

 found on the coasts of Ceylon. In Tennent's time (before 

 1863) it was apparently common "from the bay of Calpentyn to 

 Adam's Bridge, " and about the Gulf of Manaar, but W. W. A. 

 Phillips (1929) implies that it is no longer found in any numbers 

 there and "appears to be in danger of extermination, if not 

 protected. " Millett (1914), however, speaks of it as "plentiful 

 in and about the Gulf of Manaar . . . It is frequently 

 caught in the large shallow lagoons near Trincomalie, where it 



