51 



This species was at one time very abundant, delighting in the 

 shallow waters of quiet bays and creeks of tropical America, and luxuri- 

 ating in the sub-aquatic herbage, but more particularly about the 

 mouths of the Amazons and the Orinoco, frequently ascending for 

 many miles, even to their tributaries and the fresh-water lakes, where 

 the floating leaves of water-plants supply their wants ; but as the flesh, 

 the hide, and the oil are much esteemed, and the animals themselves 

 readily captured with the harpoon, the race has been greatly reduced 

 by the assiduous persecution of the natives. 



The male and female are said to be mutually attached so fervently, 

 as to kill one the other becomes an easy prey, refusing to leave the fatal 

 spot, and to forsake its late partner. 



MAJTATUS SENEGALENSIS, Desmarest. The Lamantin. 

 Synonyms Lamantin du Senegal, Daubenton. 



Trichechus manatus Africanus, Oken. 



Manatus Senegalensis, Gray. Seals and Whales, 1866, 

 p. 360. 



The Lamantin inhabits the estuaries of the Senegal and other rivers 

 of the western coast of tropical Africa, and, although considered to be 

 distinct from the Manatee, it corresponds greatly with it in its 

 organism, and apparently in its economy, of which, however, we have 

 no sufficiently precise details. 



Genus HALICOEE/ Illiger. 

 Incisors tf i^ $ , canines , molars |? = 12, or 14. 



The upper incisors of the male are large, tusk-like, with bevelled 

 off cutting edges, and their roots provided with persistent pulp- 

 cavities, similar to rodents, and they project beyond their sockets 

 only one-eighth of their whole length. In the female these teeth, 

 although well developed, lie concealed, and never penetrate the gum ; 

 the molars during life number from twenty to twenty-four, but the 

 first ones shed before the last has cut the gum, and consequently the 

 whole are never simultaneously in use ; the front limbs exhibit no 

 trace of nails ; the tail fin at its extremity is lunate, forked ; the cervical 

 vertebrae are seven ; and that portion of the beak beyond the eyes, and 

 which receives into its cavities the large upper incisive tusks, is bent 

 down abruptly, almost vertically, over a long deflected mandibular 

 symphysis. 



The animals, therefore, are easily recognized from those of the genus 

 Manatus, by either one of the many following characters, viz. : the 

 dental formula generally, but more especially the upper incisive tusks ; 

 the large and long facial bones, singularly bent downwards ; the de- 

 flected symphysis of the lower jaw ; the normal number of the neck 

 vertebra? ; the clawless, pectoral fins, and the forked extremity of the 

 tail. 



1 &As, the sea, and K6prj, a nymph. 



