OCEANIC MAMMALS 535 



are being killed off wholesale for food purposes. This is 

 especially true of those around the coast of Tanganyika Terri- 

 tory and Mafia Island, in the Red Sea, and probably Northern 

 Australia. 



Family HYDRODAMALIDAE 



STELLER'S SEA-COW 

 HYDRODAMALIS STELLERI Retzius 



Hydrodamalis stelleri Retzius, Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl., Stockholm, 



vol. 15, p. 292, 1794 (Bering Island). 

 SYNONYMS: Stellerus borealis Desmarest, Mammalogie, pt. 2, p. 510, 1822 (Bering Sea); 



Manati gigas Zimmermann, Geographische Geschichte, vol. 2, p. 426, 1780 



(Bering Sea). 

 FIGS.: Brandt, J. R, 1846, pis. 1-5 (outline of body; skeleton); Simpson, G. G., 1930, 



fig.; Stejneger, 1936, pi. 21. 



The history of the extermination of this large sea-cow has 

 been written. It was the largest of the known sirenians, at- 

 taining a length of about 24 feet, with a relatively small head 

 in proportion to the body and with a tail of the dugong type, 

 with lateral flukes. Its skin was of a dark brown color, some- 

 times spotted or streaked with white. The fore limbs were 

 paddlelike and covered with short brushlike hairs, but the 

 hind limbs as usual were absent. The skull showed a rostrum 

 only slightly deflected downward and was entirely 'toothless. 

 There were 19 pairs of stout ribs, with some 37 lumbar and 

 caudal vertebrae. 



In 1741 Bering and "his accomplished companion, the Ger- 

 man naturalist Steller, " were shipwrecked on what is now 

 called Bering Island, one of the Commander Islands off the 

 east coast of Kamchatka. While here Steller discovered this 

 huge sea-cow, and his account of it is the basis of most of our 

 knowledge. It seems to have been fairly numerous about the 

 coasts of this and the adjacent Copper Island, living in the 

 shallow bays and feeding upon the abundant growth of lami- 

 narians. Following the explorers came Russian traders and 

 fur hunters, who found the animals easy to kill with harpoons 

 and for a time slaughtered them in numbers and lived high on 

 the meat. "Its restricted distribution, large size, inactive 

 habits, fearlessness of man, and even its affectionate disposition 

 towards its own kind when wounded or in distress, all contrib- 

 uted to accelerate its final extinction," which was practically 



