44 DR. J. MURIE ON THE MANATEE. 
valuable researches of Dr. Herman von Jhering', on the subject of the interdependence 
of nerves and vertebre in the different regions and in several groups of the Vertebrata, 
strongly tend to sustain the view I have offered. Therefore, until more weighty con 
trary evidence is forthcoming, I am inclined to reiterate my belief in the third vertebra 
being that absent in the neck of Manatus. 
Regarding the present illustration of the sternum (PI. VIII. fig. 2), I have introduced 
this, with its attached cartilages, as showing variation in shape and development from 
that already given by Prof. W. K. Parker’ and myself*. The muscular variations of 
the manus extant are not so very peculiar in themselves; but in the bearing of such a 
question as has been raised by Dr. D. J. Cunningham* they possess increased interest. 
Dr. Chapman (J. ¢. p. 453) has evidently mistaken the conventional flesh-colour, given 
in my former lithographs, as the natural one; indeed the flesh was rather the tint of 
veal or pork, as was Garrod’s specimen. 
I did not measure the blood-corpuscles, leaving this to Dr. George Gulliver, to whom 
I supplied material for examination, and who found the corpuscles even of greater 
diameter than stated by Garrod. Gulliver® gives the average size as 375, of an inch, 
and as compared with 33'55 inch in the White Whale (Beluga)’. 
The Manatee’s choice of food when in confinement is singular; but as yet dataare too 
scanty to judge of what may be the likes and dislikes of the tribe. The utter silence of 
this Westminster-Aquarium example seems to denote that the Manatees seldom use their 
vocal organs; but among the males and during rutting-season I have no doubt it is other- 
wise. Hearing, according to Chapman and what I have observed, isacute enough. The 
difference in shape of tail in this and former examples, taken along with Prof. Wilders’s 
foetal specimen (/. c.), shows a want of constancy in outline, especially as regards tapering 
and tip-incision. It is satisfactory for me to find my opinion of the possibility of 
specimens surviving transport and living in England confirmed. I think there can be 
no doubt of a diminution of the species in their old haunts and, like the northern 
Rhytine, extinction near: hence the importance of anatomical work and study of their 
habits while yet possible; forasa link to the study of strange paleontological forms, we 
have in Manatus and Halicore only the remnants of a chance in the elucidation of a 
group strange and interesting to a degree, so far as ancestorship is concerned. This 
* Das peripherische Neryensystem der Wirbelthiere als Grundlage fiir die Kenntniss der Regionbildung 
der Wirbelsiiule, p. 11 et seg.; Leipzig, 1878. 
* The Structure and Development of the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum in the Vertebrata, p. 219, pl. xxix. 
fig. 21. ° Memoir, J. c. pl. xxiv. fig. 30. 
* “<The Intrinsic Muscles of the Hand of the Thylacine and Phascogale,” Camb. Journ. of Anat. and 
Physiol. vol. xii. p. 434 (Pt. 3, April 1878). Quite recently, and while this was in the printer’s hands, there 
appears in the same journal Dr. Alf. H. Young’s paper on “ The Intrinsic Muscles of the Marsupial Hand 
(vol. xiv. p. 149, Jan. 1880), where Cunningham’s generalizations are further discussed. 
* Consult his paper thereon, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 5) vol. ii. p, 172 (1878). 
