24 DE. J. MUEIE ON THE MANATEE. 



As regards the general habits of this specimen, they bear out in nearly every parti- 

 cular the observations made by Dr. Chapman and Prof. Garrod on animals kept in 

 limited areas, and with the advantage in this case that the transparency of the glass 

 tank and its accessibility from all sides allowed close inspection at all times. One may 

 class it among animals of crepuscular or nocturnal habit, inasmuch as it chiefly fed at 

 night. To use Mr. Carrington's words, its tank was regularly and literally smothered 

 with green food late at night, and, though eating a little before visitors by gaslight, it 

 was not until after all the people had left the Aquarium that it began to feed in earnest, 

 though by morning it generally managed to have finished an unusually ample meal. 

 As a host of observers have noted, the harmless stupid nature of the Manatee and its 

 uniform quiet stolidity are quite characteristic and manifest in the creature in its native 

 haunts as much as in confinement. During the greater part of the day it dozed in 

 various attitudes, every now and again rising, lazily and apparently without the slightest 

 efibrt, to the surface to breathe ; or occasionally it made a move round the tank in a 

 slow unconcerned manner. It never violently plunged or rolled about, as, for a short 

 time, it seems the specimens at Philadelphia did (/. c. p. 459). Altogether a dull 

 and apathetic creature, even night time and its voracious feeding did not seem to 

 enliven it much. In moving round the tank at times it would poke its nose close up 

 to the glass, remaining stationary there for a few minutes, and without exhibiting fear 

 of the over-curious on-lookers. In the same way it would occasionally carelessly toy 

 with its food, its muzzle being exceedingly movable and tactile. I attentively watched 

 the eye, the small size of which, with its grey or steel-blue iris, bore quite a pig-like 

 expression.' There was, however, a cunning leer in the organ of vision; and, what with 

 the dark colour of surrounding skin and its deep-set position, elephantine roguery 

 seemed mingled with porcine obstinacy. The nictitating membrane is comparatively 

 large and very mobile. During life I also observed that the full-sized pupil was round 

 and not slit-shaped or " transverse oval " as I had previously interpreted it in the dead 

 body '. I afterwards verified the above remark on the rotund pupil in the fresh car- 

 cass, and then made a coloured drawing from nature, which is reproduced in PI. VIII. 

 fig. 1. Prof. Vrolik's figure^ quoted below, of a side view of the head, I had criti- 

 cised^ as being deceptive in the eye-region, from an outer circular line and presence of 

 a heavy backwardly overlapping orbital fold giving the appearance of a large patent 

 eyeball. Now, in justice to this worthy anatomist and his artist, I may here notice 

 that in this adult live animal there was a distinct skin-elevation or semicircular fold 



peritoneal inflammation and reparatorj' effort of nature, unfortunately at last unsuccessful. From what you 

 state, your treatment seems to me to hare been judicious under the oircumstances, and specially considering 

 the difficulty ot arriving at any true and sure knowledge of the malady in such a thick-skinned phlegmatic 

 creature." 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. viiii. p. 187. 



^ Bijdrage tot der Natuur- en ontleedkundige Kenuis van dem ilunatus amei-ieanus, pi. i. 



= Loc. cit. p. 1,32. 



