285 
THE SOUTH AMERICAN MANATEE IN THE 
WESTMINSTER AQUARIUM. 
By tHe Epritor. 
For the second time a living specimen of that singular animal, 
the Manatee, or Sea-cow, Manatus americanus, has been brought 
to England, and may be seen disporting itself in a large glass tank 
at the Westminster Aquarium. The first example of the kind 
which reached this country alive was exhibited in August, 1875, in 
the Zoological Society’s Gardens, in an open pond near the Seal 
Enclosure. It only lived a month, however, owing probably to 
the water being kept at too low a temperature for an animal 
accustomed to a tropical climate. Previous to this date more than 
one attempt had been made to bring over a living Manatee; but 
although these efforts were unsuccessful, the arrival of some dead 
specimens, preserved in salt, proved of considerable value to zuolo- 
gists, for Dr. Murie, who was then Prosector to the Zoological 
Society, was enabled to dissect and examine them, and he pub- 
lished a detailed account of the anatomical structure, concerning 
which at that time comparatively little was known.* 
The Manatees, or “Sea-cows,” as they are popularly termed, 
inhabit estuaries and shallow parts of the shore in the intertropical 
regions on the Atlantic coasts of South America and Africa. In 
structure they resemble the Dugongs, being placed with them in 
the order Sirenia,t} and are said to be related to the Cetacea, 
or whales, on the one hand, and to the Ungulata, or hoofed 
quadrupeds, on the other. They agree with the whales and differ 
from the seals in the absence of mid-limbs, and in the possession 
of a horizontal tail-fin; but their nostrils are never used as blow- 
holes, although they can be opened and closed at will. They are 
as truly mammals as are the whales, seals and walruses, having 
warm blood, breathing by means of lungs, and bringing forth their 
young alive and suckling them. They have a hairy covering, too, 
* See Transactions of the Zoological Society for 1872. 
+ The name Sirenia, applied collectively to the Manatees and Dugongs, is derived 
from the fact that these animals have a habit of sitting in a semi-erect position in 
the water, suggesting by their appearance the travellers’ tales of Sirens and Mer- 
maids, the illusion being heightened by their ability to flex their flippers over the 
chest, and fald their young in this way, so it is said, to the breast, 
