[el 3tog 
Ill. Notes on the Manatee (Manatus americanus) recently living in the Society's 
Gardens. By A. H. Garrop, I.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. 
Received October 11th, 1875. Read November 16th, 1875. 
[Puates XX VITI.-XXX.] 
UNTIL the arrival, on August the 6th of this year, of a living female Manatee in the 
Society's Gardens, very few Europeans had had the opportunity of seeing a live Sirenian ; 
and those who had previously been so fortunate, had not, in most cases, been able to 
observe it under the favourable circumstances of position afforded by a small shallow 
pond approachable on all sides. In this pond it was not the least difficult to watch the 
creature minutely whilst it was feeding, as well as to make other notes of its habits 
which would necessarily be overlooked by those who meet it in its native haunts. 
Dr. Murie, in his valuable monograph on the Manatee +, justly remarks, that “ in 
museums it is customary to see such bloated over-stuffed specimens, that from them, 
as well as figures extant, an unfair idea of the configuration is obtained.” Dr. Murie’s 
own illustrations, with their beautiful textural details, represent the animal much 
more accurately. The only fault in them, if it is a fault, is rather in the opposite 
direction to that above indicated by him. His specimens were dead and preserved ; 
they had evidently shrunk slightly, the living animal appearing a little more rounded 
and presenting less well-marked skin-folds. 
The following are the measurements of the animal which I have had the opportunity 
of dissecting, taken almost immediately after death :— 
inches. 
Motallensth- =. 8% « : <<. slae mach TOU. 
Circumference (3 inches in fro ont of saubitteds)’ eaeeriny S eae a5) 
Greatest breadth of tail(8 inches fromend) ... . . 19 
ORD INCUSRLORAMUNG es ee nt cn te ee go) logy 
Vulvatoanus .. Meee 0 
Circumference at root af tail (7 ene payout adie Bd ASE 
Dente Oniainapiee se ek se OO 
WienethromiorewUMDie st sem. 5s et ete eo, A 
Enaeneve TIrOUROreNORL o, . . se etl | RO 
Breath of suoat. haliway down. . . . . - - » . . OD 
newt ofsnouratimedie tie - . . . ee ee 
Rraweat torcan over Ncade . 4... <0 +) 3} ss el OO 
Promveye tocye’aboyve ead..." . 5 sw ee OF 
PeouwenttGeye-on one side... . /si adoro" Fost" BTS 
? Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 127. 
VoL. x.—part 11. No. 1.—October 1st, 1877. U 
