1881.] MISS A. CRANE ON THE MANATEE. 459 



was invariably turned under and applied to the floor. With the 

 present pair a horizontal (and not incurved) position is habitual, and 

 the body when resting on the ground is supported by the under 

 surface of the caudal fin. In connection, however, with this dif- 

 ference of attitude, it may be noted that the previous specimena 

 had both received some injury to one of the fore paddles, which 

 may possibly have affected the balancing-power of the body, as 

 well as the facility for upward respiratory movements, and thus have 

 remotely influenced the posture adopted by them. During hfe 

 the right fore paddle of the first Brighton female hung motion- 

 less to its side. After death it was apparent that the spine had 

 received injury, that one of the arm-bones (the humerus) was 

 shattered, and that reparative processes had commenced. This 

 was a very youthful individual ; for the bones were mere cartilage, 

 and no vestiges of the transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae, 

 so characteristic of the adult skeleton, were developed. This animal 

 in life measured 3 feet 8| inches ; and the whole skeleton weighed 

 only three pounds and a half. It is probable, therefore, that the 

 incurved posture may be only adopted by injured and enfeebled 

 animals, as facilitating aerial respiration. Neither of the pair 

 under notice assumed it in health, the female making but a faint 

 approach to it a few days before her death, after seven months' 

 life in captivity. Then, and then only, her body became somewhat 

 contracted, and the enfeebled creature supported herself on the edge 

 of her tail-fin, and remained with her head always close to the 

 surface of the water. 



Lettuces and endives formed the favourite food of the pair, six 

 dozen, weighing thirty pounds, being their average daily allowance. 

 Tlie male would devour at a pinch leaves of the cabbage, turnip, and 

 carrot. Both relished those of the dandelion and the sow-thistle 

 {Sonchus oleraceus). Some varieties of a common river-weed were 

 also taken ; but this food was abandoned on account of the leeches 

 with which it was found to be infested. Sometimes the animals 

 swim gently about and pursue the leaves floating on the water. At 

 others the plants are seized in their mouths, drawn down and eaten 

 under water, the hand-like fore fins being employed in separating 

 the leaves. The food is invariably swallowed below the surface. 

 The masticatory actions of the animal have been so fnlly and ac- 

 curately described by Professor A. H. Garrod, F.R.S.^ that further 

 remark on that subject is unnecessary. The habits of the animals 

 in captivity, while affording occasional evidence of the ease and 

 rapidity with which they move in the water, do not furnish much 

 support to the views of their capability of habitual active progres- 

 sion on land. Yet it must be admitted that, supplied with a suf- 

 ficiency of nicely varied food, they have no inducement to leave 

 the water, and that the construction of their straight-walled tank 

 precludes such efforts as a rule. The male, however, has recently 

 been observed to make some slight attempts at terrestrial movement, 

 turning himself round and progressing a few inches when his tank 

 1 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. x. p. 137. 



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