QUADRUPEDS. 203 



to respire. This fin is usually termed the Tail. There 

 are two small bones embedded in the muscles, near the 

 anus, which are the only vestiges of a pelvis. They have 

 no external ears, the aperture being a small hole. 



HERBIVORA. 



Nostrils terminating in the snout. 



The animals of this group, established by Cuvier, were 

 formerly arranged with the Walrus, to which they bear 

 some resemblance. Their skin is sleek, and has here 

 and there a few hairs. The mouth is furnished with teeth, 

 having flat summits fitting them to brouse on sea-weeds. 

 The teats are pectoral. 



Swimming pavvs, with the rudiments of nails. 



115. Manatus. Lamantine. The grinders are eight on 

 each side, with two transverse ridges. No tusks. In youth 

 there are two small incisors in the upper jaw, which speedi- 

 ly fall out. The stomach is complicated, the coecuni 

 branched, and the colon swollen. Trichecus manatus of 

 LiNN.EUS, is the only well established species. 



It is probable that this animal, or some of the other 

 species of the tribe, with pectoral teats, may have given 

 rise to the belief in the mermaid. The lamantine is said 

 to carry its young between its paws, and, when viewed in 

 this attitude, it would furnish materials for the imagina- 

 tion to form those exaggerated pictures, which have from 

 time to time been communicated *". 



* The Lamantine occupies a place in the British Fauna, as a straggler. 

 Mr Stewart, in his Elements of Nat. Hist. I. p. 124., states, that ' The 

 carcase of one of these animals was, in 1785, thrown ashore near Leith. It 

 was much disfigured ; and the fishermen extracted its liver, and other parte, 



