402 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892- 



whole habitat of Orcella fliiminalis, tlie Irrawaddy porpoise) is 

 Platanista, the " BuUan " of the Indus. Mr. Blanf ord refuses ( rightly) 

 to separate this from the Gangetic species, and the specific name 

 Gangetica has precedence. It is also found in the Brahmaputra. It 

 was sufficiently noticed in these pages in the '' Waters of Western 

 India/' but it is only fair here to say that the suggestion then put for- 

 ward of its probable method of entry into the Indus had been antici- 

 pated by an unknown contributor to the Imperial Grazetteer. 



The Sirenia were formerly classed as *' Herbivorous Cetacea, " but 

 are now considered a distinct order, and have one representative in 

 our seas. This is Halicore Dugong, which is recorded from Ceylon, 

 Malabar, the Andamans, and the Mergui Isles. Mr. Blanford gives 

 it 15° range on each side of the equator, but this is probably an 

 under estimate. For (as he himself remarks) the Dugong is probably 

 identical with H. AustraUs of Australian Waters, and H. Tabernaculi 

 from the Red Sea. 



The godfather of the latter ( Ruppell) considered it to be the beast 

 whose skin was used in the Hebrew tabernacle (Exodus xxv. 6) and 

 is there called " Seal skin. " Our revised version hazards " por- 

 poise skin " in the margin, which is more probable, but not as 

 good a guess as Ruppell's. For seals are none in the Red Sea, and 

 porpoises not easy to catch. But Salicore Tahernaculi does inhabit 

 the Gulf of Suez, and gives its name to the Isle of Shadwan, at the 

 mouth of the same, which many of us have seen, . The Red Sea 

 Pilot also, like most sailors, and translators, calls him a *' seal " in 

 that connection. 



There is a doubtful but not an improbable record of a Halicore from 

 the Coast of Katty war, and a few years ago a Bombay paper men- 

 tioned a strange carcass as stranded on our own island which (if 

 correctly described) was of nothing else. But our basaltic coasts 

 are too poor in Algce to maintain so large a marine herbivore. 



Of the Edentata Mr. Blanford allows India three species of one 

 genus, Manis, of which one is found over most of this presidency, 

 the Scaly Ant-eater or Pangolin. We have specimens, and the 

 beast is not so rare as its shy and subterraneous habits might make 

 us think. But the present writer has no record of it from the 

 Konkan, and believes it to prefer drier regions more suited to its 



