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[ 137 ] J^ ^. ^ic 



V. On the Form and Structure of the Ilanatee (Manatus americanus). 

 By Dr. James Murie, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



Eead November 15th, 1870. 



[Plates XVII. to XXVI.] 



I. Exterior Aspects and Dimensions. 



1. General contour. — Among original investigators of the uncouth aquatic 

 mammal the Manatee, the painstaking Daubenton, in one of BufFon's well-known 

 volumes, has given a representation of a foetus in profile, and of the head foreshortened ^ 

 These evince only a certain accuracy, being too small to bring out the minor tegu- 

 mentary characters. This remark applies in common to Sir Everard Home's better 

 executed figure ^ copied by Frederick Cuvier', to J. A. Albers's foetus*, and to that of 

 Alexander von Humboldt^. Dr. Hermann Stannius'^ in his larger illustrations of the 

 head of the animal, likewise fails to depict skin-texture, although the peculiarities 

 of the muzzle are effectively rendered. Professor W. Vrolik' expresses himself thus 

 concerning his own folio plates : — " I suppose that my representation is quite exact, 

 and will give such a just idea of the animal that it is useless to enter into more 

 particulars." 



It is therefore in no hypercritical or self-satisfied spirit that I draw attention to 

 pictorial defects in the able treatises of these revered preceptors of comparative 

 anatomy, but rather in vindication of my reproducing work already done. Of the two 

 specimens which have come under my scalpel, female and male, I was content to 

 note that the former did not coincide in certain points with Vrolik's delineation. 

 Bethinking myself, however, on receipt of the latter, that a good photograph vv'ould be 

 a desirable acquisition, I took such views as seemed best to afford evidence of the 

 external afl[inities of this singular creature, and of the adaptability of its unwieldy 

 carcass to propulsion through a watery element. In museums, it is customary to see 



' Histoire Naturello, tome xiii. plate 57. ' Lectures on Comp. Anat. vol. iv. pi. 55. 



^ PI. 1 of the Hist. Nat. des Cetaces. Paris, 1836. 



* Icones ad Ulustrandam Anat. Comp. fasc. ii. tab. iv. Lipsiae, 1818. 



* In Dr. Wiegmann's ' Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte,' 1838, p. 1, pis. 1 & 2. 



^ Beitrage zur Kenntniss der amerikanischen Manatis von Hermann Stannius. Rostock, 1846. Tab. 1. 

 figs. 1 & 2. 



' " Bijdrage tot de Natuur- en Ontleedkundige Kennis van den Manatus americanus," p. 58 (pis. 1 & 2), in 

 the Memoirs of the Zool. Soc. Amsterdam, Natura Artis Magistra, 1852. For a copy of this folio monograph 

 I am indebted to the liberality of J. Norrdhoem Heyt, Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, Amsterdam. 



VOL. viii. — PART III. September, 1872. x 



R191975 i 



