550 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



tolerated, and the sale of the meat and hide is not strictly 

 prohibited. In order to make any protection effective a com- 

 plete accord between the Belgian and Portuguese Govern- 

 ments is necessary. " 



Thus it appears that the numbers in all the West African 

 localities where manatees are found are slowly but certainly 

 diminishing and that protection by law is ineffective unless the 

 officials of the countries concerned take a more active interest 

 in its enforcement. The manatee might be still a useful source 

 of meat to local populations if the hunting could be better 

 regulated, through the enforcement of close times and the pro- 

 hibition of mass methods of killing. As yet there seems to be 

 insufficient knowledge of the breeding season to make intel- 

 ligent regulations for closed seasons. 



AMAZONIAN, OR SOUTH AMERICAN, MANATEE 

 TRICHECHUS INUNGUIS (Natterer) 



Manatus inunguis Natterer, in Pelzeln, Verhandl. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien, vol. 33, 



Beiheft, p. 89, 1883 (Rio Madeira, Brazil). 

 SYNONYMS: "Though several other older names have been used for this manatee, 



none of these names is clearly restricted to this one species" (Hatt, 1934, p. 537). 

 FIGS.: Hartlaub, 1886, pis. 1-4; Thomas and Lydekker, 1897, pi. 36, fig. 5. 



"The species inunguis is, in all likelihood, constantly charac- 

 terized by the absence of nails, a white breast patch, slender 

 proportions, and elongated flippers" (Hatt, 1934, p. 540). Its 

 sternum is smaller in proportion to the size of the animal and 

 may further be distinguished from that of other species by its 

 slenderness and backwardly directed processes. The cranial 

 bones are characteristically soft, chalky, and rather elaborately 

 roughened instead of smooth. The skull is long-snouted, the 

 nasal bones may be lacking, the lacrimals are small and scale- 

 like, the temporal ridges do not rise above the general level of 

 the brain case, the pterygoid process is long, narrow, and high, 

 and the molar teeth are small in diameter and more strongly 

 furrowed as compared with those of other species. The vomer 

 is short in young skulls but in those of adults may extend to 

 within an inch of the incisive foramina. Total length of an 

 adult skull, up to 360 mm. 



The range of this manatee is said to be the "rivers of north- 

 eastern South America, particularly the Amazon and Orinoco 



