OCEANIC MAMMALS 531 



enters the narrow mouths at high water in search of a certain 

 kind of food of which it is very fond, and where it gets stranded 

 by the receding tide, when it is easily captured." A more 

 recent note from A. C. Tutein Nolthenius (October, 1936) 

 states that small numbers may still be found in the shallow 

 seas off the northwest coasts of Ceylon, to the north and 

 northeast coasts. Fifty years ago it appears to have been 

 much more common and somewhat more widely distributed 

 than today. Its flesh is eagerly eaten by certain castes of the 

 indigenous population and is in special demand because of its 

 reputed aphrodisiacal properties. The animal is therefore 

 taken whenever opportunity offers. Usually it is caught in 

 nets spread among the coral reefs, to the vicinity of which it 

 resorts during the northeast monsoon. At one time a con- 

 siderable number were sent by train, alive, to Colombo, for 

 sale in the fish market, but the practice has been stopped in 

 recent years on the score of cruelty. The dugong is in no way 

 protected at present, and its numbers are becoming much de- 

 pleted. Unless given some measure of protection very soon 

 its extermination in Ceylon waters may be accomplished at no 

 very distant date. Prater (1928), a decade ago, wrote that 

 the dugong was becoming increasingly scarce in Indian coastal 

 waters and that recommendations were about to be put for- 

 ward for its protection during part of the year. 



Eastward, the dugong occurs in small numbers in the Straits 

 of Malacca, on the Siamese coasts, on the coasts of Sumatra 

 and Borneo, eastward to the Philippines, and thence follows 

 the Japanese current northward even to Formosa and the 



Australian dugong (Dugong australis] 



