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THE MANATEE AT THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
By Procter S. Hutcuinson, M.R.C.S. 
One of the recent acquisitions of the Zoological Society is 
the curious Manatee. This animal, which comes from Demerara, 
may be seen in a warm-water tank in the Reptile House of the 
Gardens. It is the South-American species, Manatus americanus, 
of which one specimen has been in the Gardens before, but 
unfortunately died in about a month, probably from the water 
being insufficiently warmed. 
The Manatees belong to the Order Sirenia, or Sea-Cows ; 
besides this species there are two others, the Floridan, M. lati- 
rostris, and the African, M. senegalensis. The Halicore, or 
Dugong, having tusk-like incisors and no nails on the flippers, 
and Steller’s Sea-Cow, Rhytina Stelleri, entirely without teeth, 
belong to other genera of the same Order: the latter animal, 
which inhabited Behring’s Straits up to the end of the last 
century, but is now believed to be extinct, was twice as large as a 
Dugong or Manatee, but of similar habits. 
The Manatee, like the Whale, is not, as many erroneously 
suppose, a fish, but a mammal, suckling its young and having 
warm blood. It agrees with whales in the absence of mid- 
limbs and the possession of a horizontal tail-fin, but differs in 
the conformation of its nostrils, which are never used as blow- 
holes, though they can be opened and closed at will by means of 
a valve. We might apply to it what Trinculo says of Caliban :— 
‘‘ What have we here? a man ora fish? .... Warm, o’ my troth! 
I do now let loose my opinion; hold it no longer. This is no fish, but 
an islander.” 
It has a rounded head, very small eyes, no external ears, a pair 
of anterior flippers, which it can move in all directions, with 
small nails on them; no hind limbs, and a broad flat tail, 
horizontal, not vertical like fishes. The lips are covered with 
stiff bristles, but the skin is thick and almost hairless. There 
are several skeletons of Manatees both in the College of Surgeons 
and the British Museum, and at the latter place a fine skeleton 
for comparison of Rhytina. From these it will be seen that 
their bones are very thick, and that they have the great peculiarity 
of only six cervical vertebre instead of seven, a feature only 
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