MAMMALS OF BORNEO. 7 I 



bath and a good meal, we throw ourselves baek in our lounge 

 chairs, and hold a long, lingering discussion on the day's pro- 

 ceedings and on the delights of the chase." 



The Dyak name is ' Janni,' Kayan name ' Baboi.' 

 Hab. Baram River (E. Cox). Mount Dulit 4000-ft. (C. 

 Hose). 



OKDER SI REN I A. 

 ¥\U] LY MAN ATI DM. 



GENU 8 HAL ICO RE. 

 HALICORE DUGONG. 



HalicDvc dii'^ong^ liliger, Prod. p. 140 ; Gray & Hardw. 

 111. Ind. Zool. ii, pi. xxiii ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxviii, pp. 271, 

 483, 494 ; id. Cat. p. 143 ; id. Mam. Birds Burma, p. 53 ; 

 Jerdon, Mam. p. 311 ; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 326. 



Dimensions— Extreme length of adults 8 to 9 feet, usuall}' 

 5 to 7 ; much larger dimensions are given in books, but are 

 open to doubt. In a large specimen 8-ft. 6-in. long and 6-ft. in 

 circumference, the pectoral fins were :6 inches long and 

 8 inches broad, and the breadth of the tail from tip to tip 31. 

 The skull of a male from Ceylon measures \\i inches in basal 

 length and 8.5 in breadth. 



Distribution. The shores of the Indian Ocean from E. 

 Africa to Australia for about 1 5 degrees on each side of the 

 Equator. Dugongs have been observed on the coast of 

 Malabar, the north-west coast of Ceylon from the Gulf of 

 Calpentyn to Adam's Bridge, around the Andaman Islands, 

 and in the Mergui Archipelago, 



Habits — Formerly dugongs were said to be found in large 

 herds of some hundreds of individuals, and to be in places so 

 tame as to allow themselves to be handled. As their flesh is 

 by all accounts excellent and their fat yields a clear limpid oil 

 of great value, they have everywhere been hunted and are now 

 in most places rare. They are said to be slow in their move- 

 ments and unintelligent. Their food consists of marine algse. 

 They haunt shallow bays, salt-water inlets, and mouths of 

 estuaries, but do not, like the Manati, ascend rivers. The 

 female gives birth to but one young at a time, and is said to 

 hold it with her pectoral fin. Some writers have suggested 

 that the dugong has given rise to the myth of the mermaid 

 (hence, indeed, the name Halicorc ) ; but it should be re- 

 membered that stories of beings half man or woman, half fish, 

 are as common in temperate as in tropical seas, and that some 

 of them are more ancient than any European knowledge of 

 the dugong. 



H^b. Bornean coast. 



