Dr. J. E. Gray on the Species of Manatees, 133 



from an unmounted skeleton of a female that was sent from the 

 Governor of Senegal to the Paris Museum (t. 3. f. 13). 



At the meeting of the British Association for 1856 (Trans, 

 of Sections, p. 98) a description of the Ajuh^ a kind of Whale 

 found in the River Benue by Dr. Vogel, was read by Dr. Norton 

 Shaw; Prof. Owen considered this to be distinct from the Manatee 

 of Senegal, and named it M. Vogelii. An abstract of this paper 

 appeared in the ^Institut/ 1857, p. 61. 



Dr. Baikie, in the * Proceedings of the Zoological Society^ for 

 February 1857, described and figured the head of a Manatee 

 from the mouth of the Kworra and the Niger, which had been 

 called Manatus Vogelii by Prof. Owen. Dr. Baikie draws the 

 following deductions: — "1st, that in the Kwora or Niger, and 

 its tributary, the Tsadda or Binue, is found a Manatus inter- 

 mediate in many of its characters between M. ausiralis [of 

 America] and M. senegalensis [of West Africa] ; and 2ndly, that 

 if these differences are, as Prof. Owen suggests, too marked for a 

 mere variety, then there is no alternative but to allow it as a 

 species" (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 33; Mammalia, t. 51). The 

 skull of the Ajuh [M. Vogelii) here described is now in the 

 British Museum collection. 



In the Appendix to M. Du Chaillu^s 'Travels in Equinoctial 

 Africa,^ he mentions a Manatee, found near the Gaboon, under 

 the name of M. Owenii. 



Four skeletons from the mouth of the Gaboon, purchased 

 from M. Du Chaillu, are in the British Museum ; and there is 

 one from M. Du Chaillu in the Museum of the College of 

 Surgeons. 



In the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1857' 

 (p. 59) I published some observations on the species of Manatees ; 

 and in the 'Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' for July 1861, p. 64) 

 in my notes on the animal described by M. Du Chaillu, I made 

 some further observations on the subject. In these papers I 

 stated that I believed the Manatees from America and Africa 

 were distinct species, and attempted to point out the characters 

 in the skull which separated them, and that I believed also, 

 from the examination of skulls from various parts of America 

 and those from the mouths of the different rivers on the West- 

 African coast, that there was only a single species from each of 

 those countries. The characters which I pointed out in these 

 papers, for separating the skulls from the two countries, will, 

 since we have received a larger series of them, require modifica- 

 tion ; for the effect of the larger series is to make the distinction 

 founded on the form of the parts of the skull more difficult, as 

 the skulls from Africa and America are found to vary in the 

 same manner. 



