182 MAMMALIA. 
FAMILY I. 
—<——. 
HERBIVOROUS WHALES. 
Tuerr teeth have a flat crown, which determines their mode of life, and 
this induces them to leave the water frequently, to come on and crawl 
and pasture on the shore. They have two mamme on the chest, and 
mustachio-like hairs; two circumstances which, when observed from a 
distance as they raise the anterior part of the body vertically above the 
water, may give them some resemblance to woman or man, and have 
probably occasioned those fabulous accounts of Tritons and Sirens which 
some travellers pretend to have seen. Although in the cranium the bony 
nostrils open towards the top, the orifices in the skin are pierced at the 
end of the muzzle. Their stomach is divided into four sacs, of which 
two are lateral, and they have a large cecum. 
Manatus, Cuv. 
The Lamantins, or rather the Manati or Cow-whales, have an oblong 
body, terminated by an elongated oval fin; the grinders, eight in number 
throughout, have a square crown, marked with two transverse elevations ; 
there are neither incisors nor canines in the adult; but when very young, 
we find two very small pointed teeth in the intermixillary bones, which 
soon disappear. Vestiges of nails are discoverable on the edges of their 
fins, which they employ with tolerable dexterity in creeping and carrying 
their young; hence the comparison of these organs with hands, and the 
name of Manatus applied to this animal, of which Lamantin is a corrup- 
tion. From their manner of living, they are also called Sea-Ox, or Sea- 
Cow, and from their mamme, Mermaid, &c.—Trichechus manatus (a), 
Lin. ; Buff. XIII. lvii. 
They are found near the mouths of rivers in the hottest parts of 
the Atlantic Ocean, and it appears that those of the American rivers 
are specifically different from those of Africa.* They grow to the 
length of fifteen feet. Their flesh is used as food (0). 
Hauicorg, Lllig.|—Dvueone, Lacep. 
The Dugongs have grinders composed each of two cones laterally 
* See Oss. Foss., tom. first part. | Halicore, Maid of the Sea. 
€ (a) This is the Trichecus Manatus of Linnzus, a species belonging to the 
genus Trichecus, which he placed in his order Bruta.—Ewna. Ep. 
€S (+) At Table Bay, in the Cape of Good Hope, a British establishment is sta- 
tioned for the Whale fishery, the principal species taken being called the Cow- 
Whales. These animals are annually accustomed to go into the bays on the above 
coast for the purpose of obtaining a medium of still water and sand, which is said 
to be essential to the parturition of all the black Whales.—Ena. Ep. 
