268 

 ORDER SIRENTA (THE MANATEES). 



Introductory Remarks Mermaids Position General Characteristics of the Order STELLER'S RHYTINA Habits 

 Extinct DUGONG Range Habits Uses Teeth MANATEE Distribution Peculiar Mouth Mode of Feeding 

 Story of "Patcheley," a tame Manatee Halitherium and other Fossil Forms. 



THIS order of the Marine Mammalia comprises only a few animals, which, however, possess 

 a peculiar interest to the zoologist. But two genera are now found alive, and a third genus was 

 utterly extirpated about a century ago. Others are only known from fossil remains. Notwith- 

 standing the ungainly, almost positively repulsive, appearance of the living forms, they yet have 

 a hold on the popular imagination on account of their being the actual representatives of the 

 famed Sirens and Mermaids of yore. The ancients, in their voyages to Eastern climes, gathered 

 stories concerning the existence of strange creatures, half woman, half fish, chiefly frequenting the 

 shores of Taprobane (Ceylon) ; and fancy, with oft-told but unchecked repetition of tales, soon lent 

 a charm to the supposed beings, by conferring on these sea-nymphs imaginary flowing tresses, and 

 sweet dulcet voices, by whose luring wiles the unwary mariner was entrapped, or led to destruc- 

 tion. Howsoever ridiculous such notions may now be regarded, they are, nevertheless, to be satisfac- 

 torily explained, for the singular Dugong, with its fish-like tail, roundish head, and mammae on 

 its breast, has the habit of occasionally raising half of its body perpendicularly out of the water and 

 clasping its young to its breast. These actions have, doubtless, given a colourable pretext to all 

 the fables of mermaids those " missing links," which even yet our children delight in, when nar- 

 rated in " The Little Mermaid," by the talented pen of a Hans Andersen. 



The Manatee or Dugong group, partly from aquatic habitat and some outward resemblances, 

 for long was classed among the Whales; by F. Cuvier they were termed the Grass-eating ("les Cetaces 

 herbivores") in contradistinction to the flesh-devouring Cete, or Whales proper. Early in this century 

 Illiger signalised and defined them as a separate sub-order " Sirenia," their organisation distinctly 

 differing from that of the Whales ; while De Blainville, later on, pressed their Elephant-like structures 

 as entitling them to close proximity with these creatures his " Gravigrades." 



Among the general characters of the Sirenia is a long, compact, cylindrical body (without back 

 611), narrowing towards the tail, which terminates either Whale-like, in forked flukes, or Beaver-like, 



SKELETON OF MANATEE. (Modified after De Blainville.) 

 a, Dotted outline of Lungs. 



in a great, flat, fibrous expansion, in either case set horizontally. The fore-limbs are encased, flat, anc 

 flipper-like, exceedingly flexible, and more completely formed than in Whales. The extinct and fossil 

 Halitherium alone is known to have possessed rudiments of hind-limbs, though pelvic bones 

 present in all. Ears are wanting, and the eyes are very small, whilst two valvular nostrils ar 

 situate over a full prominent muzzle, which is provided with a copious supply of peculiar shor 

 bristles, while the inside angles of the mouth are hairy. Their dark skin is Elephant-like, tougl 

 rough, spai-sely hairy, or smoothish and Whale-like. The two mammae are on the breast close 

 the armpits. One genus (Rhytina) was toothless, but the others had ample dentition. Moreover, ii 

 all the front of the upper and lower jaws is provided with curious, rough, homy pads or plat 

 The larynx differs from that of the Cetacea and resembles that of Land Mammals. The midriff, or 



